Lyrical Days
by Beasts lair's Fraggle
Summary: Shirou is born in the flames of Fuyuki City, his soul destroyed and reforged in fire. The boy is burned away and the image of his saviour is seared into his soul, the happiness he sees becoming a dream he will chase for the rest of his life, until one small girl changed everything: "Listen carefully because this is very important..." Nanoha spoke, "...you will be my friend."
1. Chapter 1

From the origin of everything, the start and end of all of existence, a myriad of dimensions spawned, each world born on the crossroads of destinies. For every happy ending there is a world where all comes down to zero.

But some events are harder to change than others. Those events burdened by fate are bound to appear and they are not so easily cheated. The bond between the blue knight and her distorted master is one as such, a bond that can be said to be fated the moment Emiya Kiritsugu placed the scabbard of the distant utopia inside the boy.

Shirou is born in the flames of Fuyuki City, his soul destroyed and reforged in fire. The boy is burned away and the image of his saviour is seared into his soul, the happiness he sees becoming a dream he will chase for the rest of his life.

Emiya Shirou was created on that day. That will not change. But that first meeting will not define his life on this world. Against the odds, another path opens for the boy who has become Emiya Shirou.

For in this world, Emiya Kiritsugu leaves Fuyuki City.

The man is tired. The taint that had infected the Holy Grail echoes in his mind while eating away his life. The memories of those whom he failed make it impossible for him to remain at the site of his last battlefield. Simply living there is a constant reminder of his failures: the death of those he loved and the betrayal of his own ideals.

So he leaves, planning to return once more only when he had gathered the materials to put an end to the Greater Grail. With him, he took the boy, the child pulled from the ashes of the inferno he himself began, leaving the scorched earth far behind. His new home, the city of Uminari, does not change the boy's dream. This Shirou still yearns to be an Ally of Justice, desperate to follow Kiritsugu's footsteps towards fulfilling that ideal.

Yes, those events alone were not enough to change the boy's fate, the chains binding him to his destiny are not that easily broken...

"_Listen carefully because this is very important..."_

….until one small girl changed everything.

"_...You will be my friend."_

* * *

**Lyrical Days**

**I: Does a Magus, a Magical Girl, and a Talking Ferret make for a Mystical encounter?**

* * *

_When Shirou first woke up the boy found himself resting in an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar room, white walls and clean floors giving the space a somewhat empty feel. Even though the boy was surprised there was a sense of comfort. looking around he noticed that the room was larger than he had initially thought, finding about a dozen of other beds, most of them separated by thin curtains, filled other persons. _

_Most of them resembled him, children covered in bandages, some still hooked up to machines which formed a symphony of beeps and wheezes. The sight filled Shirou with relief. After all, there was no doubt in his mind that everyone here, seemingly hurt in a similar way as himself , were also children who had been saved like him._

_Later on Shirou would learn that these children were simply those that lived at the outskirts of the disaster area, himself being the only one who had lived at the center of what was now nothing more than tainted ground. But right then the sight was enough for the boy to relax, letting his eyes wander through the room until he finally noticed the window._

_With the curtains open said window was a small portal to the outside world. It was a clear spring day, with a sky devoid of any clouds, that greeted the boy, who spent the next hour simply gazing at the bright blue sky that seemed to go on forever. Shirou couldn't remember the last time he had seen such a relaxing sight..._

_Which kinda bothered the boy. Why couldn't he remember such a simple thing?_

_It took almost a week before Shirou finally remembered what happened. There had been a terrible fire, one that had consumed everything it touched, burning through Shirou's home and devouring his parents. There had been screaming and pain…_

_Then someone had saved him, before he had woken up in the hospital, wrapped in bandages and tubes sticking in his arm._

_He had woken up to find himself without a single face he could recognise. Nobody knew if he had any family members, his mind refusing to remember their names and faces. The situation didn't make sense to Shirou at the time, but there was some part of the boy that at least understood what it meant._

_He was alone now._

_Some nurses teared up at the sight of the boy bravely accepting such a horrible truth. But the truth had been that, surrounded by the rest of the children, there was nothing else for Shirou to do but to accept the truth. And as that painful truth settled in, Shirou couldn't help but wonder what would happen next._

_But then..._

_"Hello. You must be Shirou."_

* * *

_He came the day Shirou's bandages finally came off, signalling the end of Shirou's stay at the hospital. The boy's first impression of the stranger was that of an unkempt man, dressed in a wrinkly coat. He walked over to Shirou's bed and sat down on the nearby chair. He had an awkward smile... His voice sounded a bit odd, hoarse and tired, but to Shirou it made the man somewhat likable for some reason._

_Kiritsugu started speaking, and Shirou found that his world was suddenly being turned upside down. The man had sought him out in the room, filled with children just like him, to offer him a choice._

_"I'll ask you directly. Which would you prefer? To go to an orphanage, or to be adopted by this man who you've never seen before?"_

_He looked like a man with no future. Shirou didn't know what being adopted by this man would hold in store for him… but it was either this man or living at the orphanage._

"_I'll come with you."_

_"I see, that's good. Lets get you ready quickly then. You should get used to your new place as fast as you can… although we might be moving soon. Lets… lets just go then, shall we?"_

_The man seemed happy with the choice the boy had made, smiling as he messily began to pack up the child's belongings. Soon the boy and adult were walking down the corridors of the hospital. Suddenly the man looked around, before facing Shirou. "Ah, I forgot to mention something important. I have to tell you one thing before you come with me. Is that okay?" _

"_Sure."_

_"Yeah, to start off with. I'm a mage."_

_He spoke it in an exaggerated tone, but his face was completely serious. To Shirou, who was just a child there was no reason not to believe his words. Maybe it was the way he said it or the expression on his face, but the boy didn't doubt the man for a second. _

_"Wow, you're awesome." Shirou looked up at the amazing man in front of him with a look of sheer awe. From that day Shirou became the child of Emiya Kiritsugu. With his new father came a new name: Emiya, Emiya Shirou._

_Just hearing the sound of that name would bring a smile to his lips for weeks to come, and he would treasure it for the rest of his life. Just the sheer fact that he shared that name with his saviour filled him with pride._

* * *

"Emiya Shirou! I warned you not to doze off during my classes!"

The reprimand from Shirou's teacher was accompanied with the startling slap of a ruler, the long piece of plastic unleashing a cracking sound as it was slammed down on Shirou's desk. The impact pulled Shirou out of his dream and back into the real world. Unfortunately it also caused him to throw his body backwards in response, pulling his chair along with him. For a single moment the boy seemed to balance himself in mid-air, his chair balanced on two legs even as his face twisted into a look of horror and surprise

But the stalemate didn't last, the balance disturbed by the slightest twitch of a limb, sending the boy downwards towards the unforgiving ground. The entire class winced in unison as the nine year old boy toppled backwards, even managing to catch the edge of the desk standing behind him with the back of his head on the way down. Soon the classroom was filled with laughter as Shirou, let out a painful moan before sitting up, the boy clearly more annoyed then wounded.

Shirou hissed as he rubbed the aching back of his head before looking up, the pain all but forgotten at the sight his teacher looming over him, the worry in her expression evaporating at high speed, replaced with something much scarier….

All Shirou could do was laugh sheepishly, even as a dark aura enveloped his teacher..

* * *

Later that morning Shirou still found his thoughts drawn back to the dream he had, accompanied by the ringing of his ears after being subjected to a rather lengthy reprimand, reminding him of what would happen if he was caught dozing off again. Really, it wasn't as if he slept through classes everyday. Just, after practicing magecraft the night before, he would be a bit dozy. That's all.

Even so, it had been a while since he had dreamed of his first meeting with his old man. His dreams were usually a lot more violent and nightmarish.

On such nights, he dreamt of the fire.

Shirou tried keep himself from yawning. He chastised himself to stay focused on the lesson even as his mind started to wander off again. Yea, he had stayed up all night, practicing the reinforcement magic that Kiritsugu had shown him last month, but that was no excuse to doze off.

Besides, even though he finally got the basics of forging a magic circuit mastered... somewhat, he hadn't even succeeded at properly reinforcing an object. His ability to analyze objects was top notch, but that was mostly useless from what his old man had told him.

Honestly, his magic wasn't progressing very well. Even after he had been able to successfully create a magic circuit within a manageable time, every time he tried to reinforce an object, it just didn't _take_. Lately Shirou felt like he was going nowhere...

"Shirou!"

"Y-Yes!?"

The boy straightened up at the teacher's voice, trying to remember what she had been talking about before she…

"Just because I let you stay in class just now doesn't mean you'll get off free if you don't pay attention!" She cut off his thoughts. Now, you were supposed to write an essay on what your goal is for the future. Why don't you tell the class what you plan on being in the future?"

"Yes, teacher!"

A smile grew on Shirou's face as stood up. The nine year old knew exactly what he was going to be in the future. His path had been set the day he had been taken in by Kiritsugu.

No, it was set the day he had been saved from that fire.

"When I grow up…" Shirou started as the class leaned towards him, staring at the boy's sincere expression, "...I'm going to become an Ally of Justice."

Shirou paid no mind to the laughter. He ignored the teacher's chastisement about choosing a serious profession. He ignored Alisa Bannings hammering her head in the desk, Tsukimura Suzuka letting out a sigh and Takamachi Nanoha simply looking at him with that small smile of hers.

He was used to the laughter and disbelief from other people. They didn't understand the world that Shirou wanted to live in, the world where magic was real and where heroes could save people with that power.

That was alright. There was no need for them to know, not even for his friends.

* * *

"You know," Suzuka spoke after taking a small bite from her food, "both of you should have taken that essay more seriously. Don't you think so Shirou, Nanoha?"

Shirou looked up from his lunch to see his usual lunchtime companions. The three girls, Nanoha Takamachi, Alisa Bannings and Suzuka Tsukimura were considered to be the cutest girls in their grade by his fellow classmates and had a tendency to hang around each other. Shirou often found himself spending a fair amount of time with the trio.

Originally Alisa had been bullying Suzuka, the more introvert girl and the more outgoing blonde instinctively clashing as they got along like oil and water. In one of his less successful acts as an ally of justice, Shirou eventually confronted the blonde who had not taken his butting very well. Their confrontation had soon degraded to them almost coming to blows, until Nanoha had struck both of them in a single, finishing, strike.

It was strange to see how a shared afternoon of detention had turned such a bad first impression into this strange friendship. Even so, Nanoha seemed happy and Shirou wasn't one to complain about small things such as the past.

"I did take it seriously Suzuka." Shirou responded as he clenched a fist tightly. "I'm going to be an Ally of Justice. I'm going to save people when I grow up."

"Ah, what is with our group? First our idiot give this joke of a speech on being a superhero, then Nanoha doesn't give any answer at all!" Alisa sighed, rubbing her hand against her forehead.

"I think... that Alisa and Suzuka are more amazing for knowing exactly what they want to do already." Nanoha sighed.

"Ah, that's right." Shirou nodded. "Alisa is going to succeed her parent's business and Suzuka is planning to become an engineer, right?"

"Yes," Suzuka nodded. "I like machines and such so I thought it would be nice to go into engineering."

"So nice, knowing what you're going to do…" Nanoha sighed.

"You know Nanoha," Alisa prodded her worrying friend, "you really don't have to worry about this so much! I mean, you still have a long time to look for what you want to do. Perhaps you want to take over the Midoriya when you grow up? You like to help out so it might suit you."

"Hmm, that's one option, but I feel like there's something else out there that's more suited for me. I just wish I knew what that thing was."

"I'm sure you'll find it eventually." Shirou reassured his friend before taking another bite out of his lunch. "Even my old man tells me it's hard to know what job people end up doing when they grow up... or so he keeps telling me."

Alisa nodded in approval, patting Shirou on his back before directing her attention back to Nanoha. "See? Even the idiot amongst us thinks you shouldn't force yourself to make this decision right now. I'm sure you'll find the path that fits you best!"

"..don't call me an idiot." the boy meekly added, well aware that Alisa wouldn't take his objection into consideration.

"...That goes for you too Shirou." Alisa continued. "You shouldn't joke around about your future with such a strange goal."

"I'm not joking. I'm going to be a Hero."

"Being a hero isn't an occupation you idiot!" Alisa cried out.

"Shirou" Suzuka suddenly butted in. "Why don't you just just marry Nanoha and run Midori-ya with her?"

"Ugu!"

"Hng!"

"Oh my, are you alright Nanoha?" Suzuka gently slapped the girl on her back. "Did something get stuck?"

"That… how do you even come up with something like that?" Nanoha wheezed as the girl tried to catch her breath.

"Oh well, sounds like a 'no' to me" Alisa shrugged before grinning at an equally disturbed Shirou.

Shirou continued to listen as the conversation turned to other, less disturbing subjects. He didn't really contribute much, the boy content with simply listening as the other three girls chatted, incidentally voicing his thoughts whenever needed. They didn't always get along, and him being a boy did create a small rift between the four of them at times, but they were people who he could call friends.

That alone was enough for him to be content.

* * *

"Hurry up Shirou!" Alisa shouted even as Shirou quickened his pace.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." Shirou answered as he rolled his eyes, even though he was sure that he was smiling as the girls ran ahead. He adjusted the strap on his duffle bag to a more comfortable position before sprinting after the girls. Since he had started taking lessons from Takamachi Kyouya and Takamachi Miyuki, Nanoha's older siblings, he had been assigned the older boy's original duty of escorting Nanoha and her friends to cram school as compensation. He would grab his bags and the bokken Takamachi Shiro, Nanoha's father, had lent to him before accompanying the girls to make sure they made it to cram school. After that he'd run towards the Takamachi's for his own lessons.

Today it seemed like the girls wanted to take a shortcut, a path running directly through the park in the middle of city. Shirou had disapproved, preferring to stay on the open road instead of running through the park. They didn't take much time discussing the matter before the girls decided that his disapproval was noted but ignored. By now the three girls had gotten a lot of practice in convincing Shirou to do something against his will and they had perfected the art rather frightfully.

After all, at heart, Emiya Shirou simply didn't like saying no to people.

The sounds of the city faded away as they raced through the park. It was just like stepping into the Takamachi families dojo, similar as how the seemingly feeble walls and doors formed a barrier that kept out the noise and unrest from the outside, or the basement in his home where he practiced his magecraft...

"_...lease he..p "_

Shirou let out a yelp as he, distracted by the sudden sound, ran right into Nanoha, who had suddenly stopped in the middle of the path. The girl looked rather distracted, staring at something in the distance. "Nanoha?"

"Didn't you hear that?" Nanoha tilted her head, as if trying to find the source of whatever had distracted her.

"I... I'm not sure." Shirou confessed as he looked around… only to watch Nanoha take off into the woods from the corner of his eyes.

"Oi, Nanoha!"

Shirou ran after the girl, still wondering about what was going on. He normally would have no problem keeping up with the girl but the kendo bag strapped on his body was giving him a hard time. Glancing behind him he noticed Alisa and Suzuka had started chasing after them, the blonde furiously yelling at them in an attempt to have them slow down.

"It came from over here!" Nanoha suddenly called out, pausing for a moment before pointing towards a small clearing between the trees.

He followed her, looking around the open spot but the clearing seemed empty. "Nanoha, I don't see anyone..."

"Ah… Shirou! Just look at this poor thing here..."

Nanoha had knelt down in the grass, scooping up something furry from the ground. It was a ferret, curled up as it trembled in her hands. Judging from it's beat up appearance the thing had been injured, perhaps by a human or a dog.

"N-Nanoha, Shirou, j-just stop for a while so we can catch up!" Alisa cried out as she and Suzuka stumbled into the clearing as well. All signs of anger evaporated at the sight of the wounded animal, both of the girls joining Nanoha in cooing over the sleeping animal.

"It's injured. We need to take it to a vet." Suzuka pointed out. Shirou was already pulling a spare shirt out of his kendo bag, handing it to the girl as Suzuka carefully wrapped it around the ferret in an attempt to keep it warm.

"I'll carry him to the vet after I drop you three off." Shirou promised as he carefully took the fetter off Suzuka's hands. As he carefully cradled the animal in his arms his hand brushed over the red gem that hung on its collar.

A small shock ran up Shirou's arm, making the boy pause as he looked down. For a moment it looked like the red jewel had become brighter, gleaming through the shade cast by the trees, before it faded back to normal.

Was it his imagination?

"Come on," The boy spoke up. "We're almost at the cram school. Shouldn't there be a vet around here somewhere"

"Got it!" Alisa nodded, pulling out her cell phone. Moments later his own phone started vibrating, signalling that Alisa had sent him a link.

"There's one close to the station." Alisa explained while she pulled Nanoha and Suzuka along with her. "We'll walk the rest of the way, you go get the little guy the help he needs!"

"Wait a moment," Shirou protested. "I'm supposed to bring you to cram school first..."

"That little guy needs someone to save him! You're a hero, right?!" Alisa yelled as she took off, dragging her friends in tow. Shirou watched as the three girls disappeared before he pulled out his cellphone. He looked at the map Alisa had sent him before taking off towards the nearest vet.

'_You're a hero, right?!'_

Shirou sighed. Alisa _really_ knew how to push his buttons.

* * *

The key to practicing magecraft is to possess a strong mind and body.

This was a lesson that Kiritsugu had repeatedly drilled into Shirou after he had finally convinced him to finally teach him magic. In his first year as Kiritsugu's apprentice he had not even performed a single act of magic. Instead he had spent those months training relentlessly under his teacher's strict supervision, all in order to harden his body and increase his tolerance to pain.

After a while Kiritsugu had come home with a set of shinai for sparring practice, even though neither father nor son were experienced with wielding a sword. When Kiritsugu had gone on yet another trip, heading to regions unknown, he had left Shirou in the care of the Takamachi family, who had taken it upon themselves to look after the boy in his absence.

Shirou had known that Nanoha's family ran a cafe/bakery. What he didn't know back then was that Takamachi Shirou originally came from family of swordsmen, Nanoha's father having trained both Kyouya and Miyuki.

When the later discovered that the boy was trying to improve his own meager sword skills she had been willing to be his training partner for as long as he was willing to keep up with her pace. Soon Shirou learned the true difference between an amateur like his father, and a talented practitioner like Takamachi Miyuki.

Thus started Emiya Shirou's training in swordsmanship, a path he pursued as relentlessly as the other facets of his training. And now, after months of beat-ups and sparring sessions, his father who had never even trained in the basics of swordplay was not much of a challenge anymore. Thus Shirou found himself spending several days in the week training with one of the Takamachi's after school.

"Straighten your pose!" Kyouya barked, Shirou snapping up in response. "Your sword is tipping downwards!"

Shirou gasped for breath, forced to block another flurry of attacks as his teacher punished him for his lack of posture. By now his hands were covered with sweat, his shinai seemingly growing heavier with every block. Shirou attempted to twist away from his assailant, trying to find a lull to draw breath, only to find himself trapped as he watched his opponent raise his sword for an inescapable strike.

"You're open!"

Kyouya showed no mercy as he brought down his practice sword onto Shirou's head, only holding back right before impact to reduce a devastating blow to a painful tap.

The sound of the sword hitting his head echoed through Shirou's skull. He dropped his practice sword in favor of cradling his sore head as he slipped to the ground. Underneath his protective gear his skin was burning, a collection of new bruises already flourishing after yet another session.

"I think we're done for today Shirou." Kyouya tossed the boy a water bottle, chuckling as Shirou nearly dropped the bottle after failing to catch it properly with his trembling arms. "You seem a bit distracted today. Any reason why?"

"..It's…"

"Did a cute girl confess to you?"

"N-No, they didn't! Why do you keep asking that?"

"Older brother's privilege?"

"But you're Nanoha's brother, not mine." Shirou pointed out. "So..."

"You're here so often that you're pretty much already family you know."

"Ah.." Shirou paused. Really, it wasn't the first time Kyouya, or any other member of the Takamachi family had mentioned it. It bothered Shirou a bit to see how this family was so willing to go out of their way to look after him, to the point that he was spending quite some time here.

"So..." Kyouya smiled. "Are you going to tell me what's bothering you now?"

Shirou shook his head. "It's nothing. I-"

Shirou himself didn't really understand what had been bothering him. He had dropped the ferret off at a vet as the girls went off to cram school. He had even left his phone number behind before texting the girls that the ferret was going to be fine.

Even so, there was something nagging him about the whole situation, but he couldn't point it out. Ever since he had picked up the ferret it felt like there was something whispering in the back of his head, as if he had missed something important back in the park.

"I'm not sure..." Shirou confessed before gulping down the precious water that had been given to him.

"Oh well." Kyouya shook his head. "Anyway, we're done for today. Tomorrow Miyuki will train with you but try to get a clear head."

"Thank you for your instructions." Shirou stood up, bowing towards Kyouya who returned the gesture.

* * *

The Emiya residence in Uminari city was one of the newer buildings in town. It was a two story urban style house, no different than any other house on the block, unless you took in account the subtle boundary field that surrounded the house. The boundary field was a warning system that alerted any of the residents if someone entered the area with violent intentions, It had been the first act of magecraft that Kiritsugu had set up after they moved in.

Shirou didn't really understand how it worked, but it had cemented the idea that his father was a great magus in his eyes.

"I'm home."

Shirou's voice echoed throughout the empty house, the boy placing his bag in the corner of the living room. There was no reply of 'Welcome Home' or 'How was your day?' seeing as there was nobody home. Shirou had grown used to the act of returning to an empty home, and even the few times Kiritsugu was home he rarely answered the call back without some prompting, the man often dozing off in the sun when left alone.

Sometimes he wondered what kept his old man up at night for him to be always so tired.

* * *

The basement that Shirou sat in could be considered spartan at best, the only objects in the room being an old desk, covered in papers, an old carpet and a single lead pipe. Magecraft was a dangerous practice and at his current level Shirou couldn't afford any distractions. Kiritsugu had warned him that a single mistake could cripple him for life, if not outright kill him.

To use magecraft is to walk with death. Emiya Kiritsugu had made sure that Shirou understood this vital rule.

Shirou slowly breathed in, placing his right hand over the pipe, discarding all unnecessary thoughts. As he breathed out he made himself disappear, leaving only the pipe behind in his mindscape.

Along with the next breath a second object appeared; the circuit that would fuel his magic. Slowly the second object became more detailed, the burning in his lower spine increasing as his body responded to his mind's image. There was no room for pain. The circuit has to be perfect or the nerves that formed the basis would burn out too fast and his circuit would disappear. Heat flowed through Shirou's body, moving along his nerves even as his body tried to reject the circuit. Kiritsugu had told him that magic is unnatural, causing it to be rejected by the body, and that the pain suffered was the price one paid to use magic.

But Shirou already knew the pain of burning, his entire body had already been touched by flames once before. This heat was nothing compared to that time.

Shirou hissed through clenched teeth as the magic circuit finally slipped into place.

"Preparation complete…"

With the circuit running Shirou took hold of the pipe. By now he knew the internal structure of the object by heart, having used the same object for months.

"Composition, analyzed."

But today Shirou would once more try something beyond reading an object. Kiritsugu had recently started instructing him in "strengthening" objects with magic, reinforcing an object by understanding the object's structure and channeling magical energy into it.

By knowing the object, along with it's weaknesses, a mage could reinforce it to become better than normal. A knife becomes sharper, a shield becomes more resilient and a simple rope could become as strong as a steel cable.

"Basic structure, alter."

Today Shirou decided to try to increase the durability of the pipe. Forcing the prana to flow through his body, guiding it from the circuit through his arm into the pipe, he started flooding the pipe.

"_Remember Shirou," Kiritsugu explained, the boy closely watching his father as he continued his instruction. "channeling your magical energy into something other than yourself is like pouring poison into that object. It would be... like pumping your blood into the body of another person. Pumping your blood directly into him will only accelerate the breakdown of their body, it certainly wouldn't make them stronger. To prevent that, to turn the poisonous blood into something that benefited the donor, humans needed to understand what blood was composed of and how the body reacted to it. The same goes for magic._

"_So, I should change my magic to fit the pipe?"_

"_Well, that's not possible of course. But we can predict and influence the way the pipe reacts toward our power by completely understanding the structure. We can strengthen it by channeling the magical energy into the small gaps of it's structure instead of flooding the whole construct, which only damages the pipe even further."_

"Composition, reinforce."

Kiritsugu had spoken about it like it was a bit of a chore, hard but manageable. To Shirou it seemed as hard as hitting a target hundreds of meters away with a stone. The power his circuit produced was just too hard to control.

"R-Reinforcement Complete." Shirou gasped, letting out the breath he had been holding in. The pressure that had been building up inside the core of his body vanished, leaving him exhausted on the ground, his breathing labored and his face flushed with exhaustion. After a moment, the magus in training struggled back up into a sitting position and looked down at the reinforced pipe.

"Another failure..." Shirou concluded sadly as he held the iron pipe in his hands, the magical energy poured into it already dissipating into the room. "…It's really hard to improve something."

Shirou just stared at the pipe before slowly letting it slip from his hands. Calling it quits for the night, he stumbled back onto his feet and slowly, lethargically, returned upstairs to his room.

Emiya Shirou was asleep before his head even hit the pillow.

* * *

_'…elp…'_

Huh?

_'So…one…hel…me…'_

Shirou slowly roused himself from his slumber, gazing around his bedroom in confusion as he swore he had heard a voice calling out to him. Nobody but him was home right now. Kiritsugu was gone for at least another few days, and nobody had sneaked into the house. The latter would have resulted in the telltale sound of the barrier going off.

Where had that voice come from?

_'Hurry, someone come and help!'_

Any remaining traces of doubt or sleep were brushed aside with that desperate plea, accompanied with the vivid image of the red jewel Shirou had seen that afternoon. There _had_ been something strange with that ferret.

But that didn't matter. Someone had called for his help, and Emiya Shirou wouldn't refuse such a call.

Shirou ran out of his house, guided by the pleas of the voice while holding onto his shinai. The clarity of the voice grew stronger as he ran through the streets. Eventually he approached the veterinarian's office…

"This is…"

Shirou had been to this building on the previous day and there had been nothing unusual about it in the daylight. But now the boy couldn't help but feel that something was terribly wrong, his skin tingling from the sheer amount of magical energy pulsing out of the building.

The miasma was so dense that Shirou wondered why someone hadn't noticed, and why he had been the only one to show up.

"Shirou?"

An all too familiar voice called out, Shirou spinning around to stare at the speaker in complete bewilderment.

"Nanoha? Why?... what are you doing here?"

Why was she here? Why, of all the people was Takamachi Nanoha outside at midnight, clad in nothing more then her pajamas and her jacket? Normal, regular humans should be sleeping in their bed, not standing next to a magically soaked building.

But, before Shirou could get any answers from the girl, he paused as the building behind him started to shudder. He turned around as both he and Nanoha stared at the building in confusion. For a moment it seemed that the shuddering had stopped…

...and then the wall exploded.

Alarm bells ringing in his head, Shirou had wasted no time in throwing himself in front of Nanoha before the blast had hit him, both children tumbling down as the cloud of dust enveloped them. But there was no time for them to recover. Another blast erupted and a sudden gust of wind pushed away the dust cloud, revealing the cause of the explosion.

"Huh..."

Shirou had kinda expected the ferret, the animal most certainly involved with all the strange things going on lately. It was the other being that had caught him by surprise. For what hovered out of the hole in the wall was best described as a cloud of black cotton with a demonic face pasted on top of it.

Whatever it was, it was immersed power, making his nerves burn as if he had forgotten to close his circuit after training. It made his body, still sensitive from his training, ache as it drew closer.

There was no doubt about it. This thing, whatever it was, was radiating mana.

Shirou and Nanoha looked on in shock at the sight of the small animal being attacked by a magic cloud of darkness until the boy snapped out of his stupor.

This whole situation reeked of magecraft. Nanoha had to leave before she got hurt.

"Nanoha, you..."

"We have to help it!" Nanoha cried out, dismissing his attempt to order her to go home as the ferret failed to dodge another swipe. It almost happened too fast. Nanoha was running over to pick up the ferret. Shirou suppressed his fear and darted in front of the two, barely making it before the monster dove down for a finishing blow.

A regular weapon wouldn't work against a thing like this. All he had was the shinai on his back, a gift from the Eldest Takamachi to replace the cheap knock-off Kiritsugu had bought. That was all he had to protect his friend….

The beast was three seconds away.

There was no time to activate his circuit. Even so, some power still remained in his body. It was only a little bit, but it would have to do.

Two seconds left.

Within a moment the structural analysis of the shinai was complete. Unlike the pipe Shirou understood the practice blade almost instantly. Knowledge that he didn't have before entered Shirou's mind. Another had held this sword before giving it to him. His experiences were part of the sword.

That's right, He had known the sword's strength and weaknesses from the start. The small amount of power that remained flowed into the sword as it guided him in the strike that would protect Nanoha.

Shirou slammed his sword into the creature, launching it back into the air.

"Shirou... thats amazing!" Nanoha cheered from behind his back, yelping as the black menace immediately charged at them at full speed. Once more Shirou caught the monster with the Shinai, forcing it back with a second swing.

"This thing, it's far too tough for me. I can't do any damage to it." Shirou spoke, addressing the girl taking cover behind him. "I can hold it off for a little while, so take the ferret and run!"

"W-what?"

"I said..." Shirou hissed, gritted his teeth as the black monster rushed towards him. This time it struck so fast that it nearly ripped the sword from his hands. "...run! I can't keep this up for much longer!"

No matter what, the boy would definitely protect his friend.

* * *

He told her to run.

Nanoha's legs refused to move even as Shirou's plea echoed through her mind. Run? Leave him behind? But that's….

"You... you came for me?"

Nanoha yelped as the ferret in her arms spoke up, shaking her head as she tried to divide her attention between the cuddly animal in her arms and the monster striking at her friend.

Horror filled her eyes as Shirou darted forward to meet the beast head on, only for the impact to send him flying across the street.

"No!"

Her friend hit the ground, rolling a few feet before coming to an halt only mere steps away from where she stood. Her friend was hurt. She didn't want that... she didn't want to stand here helplessly as Shirou...

"It seems like you possess the proper aptitude." The ferret quickly spoke up. "Please! Lend me some of your strength! Not just for me, but for you friend's sake as well!"

"Strength?"

"Yes! I came here with the wish to solve this problem alone, but I underestimated their strength. Please, use your strength along with her guidance!"

"...her?" Nanoha couldn't help but ask, confused by the ferret's particular line of speech.

"[Yes.]"

Looking towards the source of the new voice Nanoha suddenly noticed that the red gem, which the ferret had been holding onto, was now floating right in front of her.

* * *

Shirou's body burned as the boy forced himself to crawl back onto his feet. The shadow monster had spiraled into the sky once again, most likely to gain some momentum for his next attempt to crush him. He wouldn't be able to last much longer. With Nanoha standing behind him there was no way that he could move to evade the attacks. Then again, he had barely any strength left in his legs to begin with.

"I, the one who accepts this mission..."

Power. Magical energy flooded over the skin of his back the moment Nanoha had started chanting. In response the monster decided to speed up, heading directly towards them.

"...The winds of the sky and the stars of the heavens..."

All Shirou could do now was stand his ground, meeting the monster's charge head on with his strongest strike. Shirou didn't know what Nanoha was doing but...

"...This magic in my hand, Raising Heart! Set Up!"

Pink light flooded the area, blinding the incoming monster as it came to a halt right before striking his target. With the light at his back, Shirou could see the opening perfectly.

The boy let out a primal cry as he struck the monster between what appeared to be the eyes. The strike connected and Shirou tumbled towards the ground as the monster jumped away with a painful shriek.

Turning around to see what had happened to Nanoha, Shirou suddenly found himself doubting his eyesight. No words came to mind as Nanoha stepped forward, wearing a white dress and holding onto what appeared to be a staff of some sorts, embedded with a larger version of the jewel the ferret had been holding onto. The monster roared at the sight of a new threat, and lunged directly towards the girl.

"Don't stand there Nanoha!" Shirou cried out in panic as Nanoha froze on the spot. "Move. Get away...!"

Before he could even finish his warning Shirou winced, the flare from the pink barrier appearing in front of Nanoha catching both the boy and the monster by surprise. To Shirou's relief it had instantly stopped the monster, leaving it to struggle in an attempt to smash through. A hesitant smile crept on Shirou's face as Nanoha's confusion shifted into a confident look as the barrier kept the monster at bay.

Then nanoha balled her left hand... before punching her own barrier.

The barrier exploded outwards, throwing the monster down the street and scattering into several gooey pieces. Shirou's triumphant cry died on his lips as he immediately spotted the individual blobs moving on their own. "What does it take to defeat this this thing?" Shirou cried out as the pieces started to reassemble itself.

"We can't defeat it with force, it will only continue to regenerate! We need to seal it!"

"It… can talk…" Shirou pulled himself up from the ground, using his shinai as a makeshift crutch, before staring at the ferret sitting next to Nanoha.

The sight seemed so bizarre that the boy could help but grin, pointing accusingly at the ferret even as a grin slipped on his face. "Don't tell me, you are a magical animal from another world!"

"Correct!" Nanoha answered with an expression which Shirou assumed was an attempt to keep a straight face. "His name is Yuuno and this is his staff, and apparently I'm a magical girl!"

"That's… wow." Shirou spoke up. "And here I thought I was the only magic user around here."

"T-this isn't the time to joke around!" The ferret yelled, causing Shirou to blink. He was being serious… and was not keeping track of the monster that was about to jump him, again.

"...Sorry, you're right." Shirou turned back to face the nearly resurrected monster. "Then, mister magical ferret, you said we have to seal this. How do we do that?"

"Nanoha and Raising Heart can do it. She just needs some time to walk herself through the process." the ferret answered.

Shirou nodded. "Alright then, I'll distract it while she does that."

"No!" Nanoha loudly objected, causing Shirou to look at her in surprise. "You're already hurt!" the girl pointed out. "You're just a boy It's too dangerous! Please, get out of here..."

"Look who's talking! You just learned your first lesson and already I'm just a boy?" Emiya Shirou smiled. "Besides, what kind of hero would leave the magical girl behind to face the monster alone? Your dad will kill me if I don't bring you home safely. Protecting people is why I got to borrow this sword in the first place..."

"But, you only have that shinai!"

"That's enough for me. I just told you, you're not the only magic user around here, didn't I?"

"Eh?"

Shirou ignored Nanoha's confused expression, instead recalling what had happened when he previously struck the monster.

Earlier had been just a fluke. He had understood the sword, and had used that power to keep the monster at bay. A small bit of power had flowed into the blade, enough to keep it from breaking.

Emiya Shirou had never once successfully used magic. Tonight, wielding the Shinai, had been the first time his magic had worked. The circuit he had made earlier during training had already degraded, his nerves returned to normal, but some prana had remained behind in his body. Had this battle taken place a few hours later, at the break of dawn, there would have been no traces of prana left, and he would have been powerless.

But, in the night, Emiya Shirou still had enough prana left to perform a last feat of magecraft.

"Trace on."

Shirou ran to confront the reforming monster, ignoring the familiar heat and pain as the familiar blueprint of the shinai was once more brought to the front of his mind. The shape of the wood, the imperfections in the materials which were invisible to the naked eye and even the dirt and filth were all mapped out in a single moment.

Shirou squeezed all of the prana he could draw from himself into the blade, filling the imperfections and the weaknesses. But this time he went beyond making it less breakable. This time he would perfect the blade, making it ascend to something beyond it's original limitations.

A rush went through Shirou's nerves as the sword accepted the meager amount of prana, the blade strengthened to the point that the practice blade acquired a strength one would normally find in real steel. The blunt object acquired a sharpness it was never meant to possess, turning the sparring weapon into something lethal…

...something that could defend Nanoha from the monster, which had finished reassembling itself and was diving right towards him. Driven by reflex, the result of many hours spent at the Takamachi dojo, the boy rolled to the side, barely dodging the claw aimed for his head. The monster's blow dug right into the ground, trapping the beast as the boy climbed back onto his feet. Shirou tightened the grip on his sword while he rushed towards the monster, driven to force it to focus on him, and only himself.

The monster wasn't allowed to focus on Nanoha while she did...whatever she was doing. Going for a killing blow, or an attempt at one, would keep the beast distracted. If his sword was strong enough then the strike would hopefully knock the beast out. If his reinforcement was not up to the task and failed then the sword would break. Without the sword and inside the reach of the monster he was as good as beaten. But no matter what, Nanoha wouldn't be targeted.

"Stay down already!" Shirou yelled as the monster turned to face him, screeching as the shinai smashed directly into it's face… before the blade sliced right through the black substance that the beast was made of. Shirou screamed as _something_ broke in his arms, forcing him to let go let go of the sword.

"Shirou!"

Shirou barely noticed Nanoha's cry as monster roared in pain, the beast panicking as it's face fell apart. As it thrashed around it struck Shirou, launching the boy through the air until his aided flight was painfully interrupted by the wall of the animal clinic, leaving the boy to curl into a ball.

The initial strike hadn't been that bad, but he could have sworn that he felt a rib crack when he crashed into the wall.

"Jewel Seed Seal!" Nanoha yelled, her voice cutting through the beast's howling. Pink ribbons spun out from the staff, binding the monster, before Nanoha blasted it with another beam of pink light, seemly vaporizing it.

"That…was pretty cool." Shirou admitted as he watched a small jewel drop to the ground. His eyes widened in surprise as Nanoha poked the strange gem with the staff, the red gem embedded in her staff glowing before absorbed the jewel.

"[Receipt number twenty one]". The staff spoke in a calm female voice while displaying the number it just had registered.

"Shirou!"

As the girl rushed to his side, the boy immediately tried to pick himself up.

"I'm okay." Shirou tried to reassure her. The fact that his arms weren't really cooperating weakened his statement as the girl glared at him.

Shirou honestly didn't care about that right now, his mind currently focused on another subject. "What happened just now... That was definitely magecraft."

"Eh?" Nanoha paused, looking at him in surprise. "What was that you said?"

Shirou was somewhat confused. Takamachi Nanoha had just used magic; ridiculously strong magic that could blast monsters in a single shot. It was unlike anything Kiritsugu had ever told him.

"Shirou... you're staring." the girl meekly spoke up, looking somewhat uncomfortable. Shirou sheepishly scratching his cheek, not realising what he was doing until the girl turned her head aside.

"Excuse me," The ferret spoke spoke up. "I don't want to sound rude, but are you really okay?"

"Don't worry so much. I'm fine." Shirou reassured both the girl and the pet. "We should probably get out of here ..."

"But you're injured! We can't just move you...!" Nanoha protested as Shirou pulled himself on his feet. Shirou flinched, both from the pain and the sound of the sirens approaching the area. People would come and look around real soon. Magecraft was to be kept a secret. That was another lesson that Kiritsugu had beat into his head.

"We should go, like right now." Shirou insisted as he started to walk, albeit slowly. "It doesn't matter where, we just really need to go, right now!"

* * *

"Alright. We're far enough from the veterinarian building now, lets take a break." Shirou spoke as he and Nanoha made their way towards her home. The girl, having wrapped his arm around her shoulder, gently put him down, the ferret jumping from her free shoulder to take a closer look at the boy.

"You know…" it spoke. "You really don't look that good..."

"I'll get better." Shirou replied as he glared over the ferret and resisted the urge to poke the cuddly looking creature a few times for making Nanoha worry even more. "So... you were saying that you're a magical ferret wizard hunting these shadow monsters?"

"Yes.. wait, No!" Yunno paused, the animal clearly trying to get its bearings straight. "It's a long explanation." He eventually answered. "Before I begin I just want to say I'm sorry for getting you involved in this."

"Don't worry about it," Shirou dismissed the ferret's apology with a smile. This kind of thing is what I've been training for...sorta. Emiya Shirou isn't afraid to help other people in need."

"That's right, introductions!" Nanoha clapped her hands before she reached her hand towards the ferret. "My name is Takamachi Nanoha, nice to meet you!"

The sight of the small ferret handing a paw in return reduced the girl to a giggling mess at the sight. "I am Yuuno Scrya. I am glad to make your acquaintance."

"So, what are you doing in Uminari Yuuno? What was with that monster?"

"That monster was..." Yuuno trailed off for a moment to gather his thoughts. "Well, that monster was my fault. I was the one to find them so I am the one responsible for collecting them again."

"Them? You found some monsters?"

"Not the monsters. That was just a side effect of the Jewel Seed's activation." The ferret explained. "The cause of that was the Lost Logia, the ancient treasure, Raising Heart sealed earlier. They are called called Jewel Seeds."

"Jewel Seeds," Shirou repeated the name. " That.. doesn't really sound that dangerous though."

"My clan and I are archeologists. It was on a recent dig that I found them. They were part of one of the oldest ancient civilization. Particular artifacts from those times which are dangerous or irreproducible are called Lost Logia."

"Oh," Nanoha nodded. "and these Jewel Seeds… spawn shadow monsters?"

"Not really. The Jewel Seeds are believed to be capable of granting wishes. But when used in the wrong way, or when unsupervised, they can do all sorts of damage."

"Wait." Nanoha looked at the ferret with a look of confusion. "So someone wished for that creature?"

"Probably not. We don't really know what the original purpose of these Jewel Seeds were. All I know is that they were described in ancient lore as miracles that are driven by desires. If there is no mage around when they activate, their effects are random and unpredictable. That shadow monster might have been such a result."

Yuuno paused as he stared at the ground. "We decided that it would be best to have them sealed and stored in a safe location. But instead they were scattered across this world during transit. I was the one that found them, so I am going to be the one to seal them back up. Please, I just need a place to rest to regain my strength. I won't bother your for more than a few days!"

"Don't worry about that!" Nanoha smiled as she turned to her friend. "We'll help you with this, right Shirou?"

"Of course." Shirou nodded. "Not even an amateur magus like me would leave something like those Jewel Seeds out in the open where they can hurt people. Magecraft is supposed to be hidden after all. Normal people shouldn't be endangered by this. I'll help you until everything is back to normal."

"You, you don't have to do all that." The fetter objected. "This my responsibility!"

"You're in no shape for monster hunting." Shirou pointed out. "Besides, we can't just leave them alone. People could get hurt, and that's something that's unacceptable."

"Right!" Nanoha agreed with the boy."... wait a minute. What did you say before that?"

"People could get hurt?"

"Before that!"

"Not even an amateur magus like me would leave something like those Jewel Seeds out in the open?"

"That!" Nanoha clapped her hands. " I knew I had heard it correctly…. what does that mean?"

"Well, even as an amateur I... wait a minute. You just used magecraft yourself, why are you even asking me something as basic as that?"

"Wait wait wait!?" Nanoha sputtered "I only used magic for the first time tonight, why should I know? Wait a minute… Shirou, you can use magic?"

"...Y-Yes?"

"Shirou can use magic..." Nanoha calmly repeated the statement even as a dark aura started to surround her figure. "...and he never decided to tell me?!"

By now the girl was outright glaring at the boy, Shirou suddenly feeling a lot more uncomfortable as the girl slowly walked towards him. He was in no way feeling guilty, not at all. It was a rule to keep magecraft hidden from normal people, although Nanoha seemed to be as 'normal' as he was.

"But, You didn't register as a magic user." Yuuno looked at Shirou in surprise. "I mean, you have some innate potential if you could actually hear my calls. But even now I can't even sense your linker core, even at this range. Raising Heart also didn't establish a link when you picked her up before..."

"err." Shirou paused. "...what's a linker core?"

A painful silence followed, both ferret and boy staring at each other in complete confusion until the last member of the party loudly coughed.

"Then, Shirou." Nanoha spoke up. "What kind of magic did you use… Like, how did you even manage to cut through that monster with just the shinai?"

"That's simple." Shirou turned turned his attention to Nanoha, happy to change the subject. "I analyzed the sword before strengthening it, reinforcing it's capabilities with magecraft."

Shirou paused at the blank look both Nanoha and the ferret gave him. "Isn't it supposed to be a basic skill for any decent magus?" He added with a frown.

"Magus, an interesting title." Yuuno noted. "To be honest I didn't know that Earth had many magic users to begin with. Nanoha, could you hand Raising Heart back to Shirou for a moment?"

"Hmm? Okay."

Shirou watched as Nanoha placed the gem in his palm. Heat seeped into his hand and for a moment it felt like the gem was tugging at him; somewhere in the core of his body...

"[Activation aborted; mana levels indexation failed. Linker core connection failed.]" The gem chimed back.

"Was it supposed to do that?" Shirou frowned as he handed the gem back to Nanoha.

"Ah." Yuuno answered, the ferret scratching his head in a way that made Nanoha squeal once more. "Raising Heart requires a certain amount of mana to activate and requires a stable connection with a linker core to function. If the user's magical storage doesn't match a certain level then it will not activate. I don't understand this at all." Yuuno yawned. "I wonder why it can't detect anything… Is your body that off-sync with Mid-Childan mages?"

"Well, I'm not a natural born mage so I'm probably really weak." Shirou shrugged, not worrying about the strange reading. After all, having no real circuits to begin with, using something like Raising Heart was out of his league from the start. "Still, how did Nanoha use it? She said that she had never used magecraft before, it took me months to learn the basics."

"Ah, Nanoha barely did anything this time." Yuuno pointed out. " Raising heart did all of the work for her, all she had to do was feed it power. Raising Heart is an Intelligent Device so it can compensate for the user in many ways. Still, it cannot do so without a large supply of power."

"[Emiya Shirou's magical level rating is inconclusive. A stable connection cannot be created between user and mainframe. Current ranking of user Takamachi Nanoha is estimated to be at rank A.]" The device lit up as it made itself known again

"A-Rank?" Nanoha looked surprised. "Is that good?"

"...Ranks go from E through S." Yuuno answered. "A-rank is something like one in one thousand on an average population like that of Mid-Childa. It's just raw power though…."

"Are you alright?" Shirou suddenly asked, carefully watching the ferret as it's head drooped down.

"Just… need some sleep." Yuuno replied. "I'll be fine."

"I think we should go home." Nanoha decided. "We can talk about this later."

"Alright..." Shirou nodded as he stood back up, ignoring the pain that shot through his body. Hopefully Nanoha didn't see him wince...

"Are you okay?" Nanoha frowned "That monster hit you pretty hard."

"Don't worry about it, I'll be fine." Shirou nodded.. "I'll probably be a little sore tomorrow but this isn't anything worse than when I spar with your brother."

"If you say so..." Nanoha didn't seem convinced, but was willing to let it slide. "Then... I'll see you tomorrow Shirou."

"Ah, good night Nanoha."

After watching the girl walk down the street the boy turned around and started his long, painful walk back towards his own home...

"Wait a minute." Shirou suddenly spoke up as a rather unsettling truth dawned on him. "...Which way is my house?"

* * *

Q&A for new readers

Q: What is this? This isn't Fate night Sky at all!

_A:Nope. While this is a MSLN/FSN crossover this is a whole different story._

Q: I know this story! You stole this from Heroslayer! It's almost exactly the same! I'll have you banned! BANNED!

_A: The original "Mahou Senki Lyrical Days" was written by Heroslayer. A while back he and I tried to rewrite his work, seeing as many readers had complained about certain choices and I really liked the idea for the MSLN/FSN crossover myself. Eventually both he and I decided to split up, creating two parallel worlds so we could each tell our own story._

Q: It took you 6 months to upload this to ? Lazy Fraggle!

_A: This version is even better than before! It's triple proofread! Besides, you'll get the other 4 chapters in less then two weeks while the forumites had to wait for months!_

Q:Really? I think I found half a dozen grammar mistakes just now.

_A: Shut up._

Q:Is this fic going to be NanoFate?

_A:I prefer Nanoha x Raising Heart. They work well together._

Q: ShirouxFate then?

_A: Nasuverse protagonist often defy fate. whether is also counts for Fate… who knows?_

Q: Is Kerry going to cap a bitch?

_A: One question which so many people keep asking me. Personally I'm against excessive animal cruelty._

Q:Isn't it supposed to be written as Takamachi Shirō and Takamachi Kyōya?

_A: that's true. But seeing that Emiya Shirou and Takamachi Shirou have [exactly] the same name, and people prefer Emiya Shirou, I've chosen to write their name in the same manner._

Q:Fraggle! I feel like I have this great idea/ commentary for your story and I want to tell you all about it!

_A: I kinda don't read my PM's when it comes to story ideas. But there is a Lyrical Days thread on both the spacebattles and the Beast's Lair forum. The latter also has a MSLD/FSN crossover snippet tread with loads of material for the combined verses._


	2. Chapter 2

**II: Isn't the way of the Magus kinda dangerous?**

* * *

_A familiar sighting of death and devastation greeted Shirou that night. The boy wasn't surprised. This particular dream often showed up on days where he pushed his body to it's limits with his magecraft practice, especially when Kiritsugu was out. The boy was all too familiar with the landscape in front of him, the details of those memories literally burned into his very soul. Never would the boy forget that hellish landscape, death shrouded by smoke and flames._

_Without warning the fire grew exponentially. A sudden breeze fed the flames until all he could see was the blinding light as hot, scorching air filled his lungs and burned. He desperately gasped for air. His lungs filled with even more of the choking smoke, pushing his body to it's limits. But Shirou pressed on, determined to take another step forward, placing one burning foot before the other._

_By now the boy had already forgotten that it was a dream he was reliving. Once more he was just a miserable child trapped in a hell on earth._

_The only thought that filled his mind was 'I want to live'. He had to keep moving, if only just one step at a time. If he moved then he wouldn't die. It was this simple truth that he kept telling himself as he pressed his hands against his ears, desperately trying to shut out the hellish noise of the burning flames and agonizing screams…_

_Around him were people. Some were dead, but others still lived. Some cried out to him, begging him to save them. Were they really alive or were they simply corpses? Were the flames and the heat just playing tricks on his mind?_

_The boy didn't listen to their pleas. He had survived until then by abandoning everyone, so he had to live. It didn't matter where he went, as long as he kept moving. Standing still would result in his death._

_Dying after sacrificing so many lives was simply unacceptable._

_Finally the boy managed to take another step, this one being even smaller than the previous one. The boy was simply shuffling his feet at this point, a feeble attempt to keep moving even though he had reached his limits. In the end, one foot simply got stuck causing the boy to fall over, his world spinning as the ground rushed up to meet him._

_This was it, the boy realised. He had fallen. His legs couldn't take another step. He had burned out. The fire had consumed his mind completely. There was nothing left but for his body to burn to ashes._

_For his own sake, his selfish desire to survive, he had left everyone behind. In the end he hadn't made it, his failure making that sacrifice meaningless. The boy stared up at the sky, watching as dark clouds started to loom over the area._

_Whatever remained of his mind noted that the clouds were a good thing. The rain would put out the fire._

_"It hurts."_

_The boy choked on the words, the first confession of his own pain. The statement was less for himself and more for the people that could no longer speak those words._

* * *

The sun's rays were all too eager to greet shirou, the boy frowning as the sun shone through the window to illuminated his face. Shirou, still rather exhausted after last night's activities, tried to turn over in a feeble attempt to keep the light from reaching his face again…

Shirou let out a moan as his body violently reacted to the sudden movements, his aching chest reminding him of the beating he had taken last night.

Eventually Shirou slowly pulled himself from his bed, the pain becoming more tolerable as his body moved around. A look at the alarm clock reminded him of the time…

...along with the fact that he had forgotten to set the alarm in the first place.

"I overslept?!"

The rest of the morning was a blur, albeit a rather painful one, to Shirou. The boy stumbling through the house as he cleaned himself up, prepared breakfast and grabbed his stuff.

'_Shirou?'_

The sound of Nanoha's voice suddenly breaking the silence startled Shirou, the boy spinning around to face the door. But as he faced the empty hallway his confusion grew.

"Did I imagine it?"

'_Shirou? Can you hear me?'_

"...Nanoha?" Only now did the boy realise that the voice seemed to come from inside his own head, which was rather disturbing to the boy.

'_Can you hear us Shirou?'_ Nanoha voice continued._ 'Just focus on me when you want to say something to answer.'_

_"I, I have no idea what is going on here." _Shirou tried to answer. How, why are you inside my head?

'_Raising Heart is managing the connection.' _Yuuno's voice entered the mix. '_You don't have to worry about anything. It's using the mental connection it made before when I sent out my distress call.'_

_"Yuuno, are you inside my head? Is this more of your magic?"_

'_Yuuno explained a few things to me!' _Nanoha returned, sounding rather chipper. '_He's showing me how to use Raising Heart to talk with him like this. He guessed that you were probably still somewhat connected with the device after last night, so we tried to call out to you as well. Isn't this amazing?'_

_"To be honest it's giving me a bit of a headache just thinking about it. You... aren't reading my mind right now, are you?" _Shirou suddenly asked, praying that Nanoha wouldn't find out how badly he had been beaten up last night.

'_Ah don't worry, your personal thoughts are safe. Communication like this is very discreet so you can keep your private thoughts to yourself.' _Yuuno quickly spoke up. _'It's similar to using auditory communicators like your cellphone.'_

'_More importantly. Shirou, are you alright? Yesterday you looked rather beat-up...'_ the sheer amount of worry in Nanoha's voice made the boy feel bad about lying. _'Did you get into trouble with Kiritsugu-san?'_

_"It's no problem."_ Shirou reassured her. "He didn't give me any trouble…"

Well, he really didn't, seeing that he wasn't at home. It wasn't really a lie that way...

'_I'm glad you're alright.' _Nanoha sounded relieved '_And Shirou, thank you for last night.'_

Even though Shirou couldn't see her face, he was convinced that Nanoha was smiling at him right now.

* * *

"_Shirou!" _Nanoha's voice popped up in the boy's mind without any warning. "_There's another Jewel Seed activating in the city! It's coming from the shrine."_

"_Yuuno and I got it, we're already on our way!"_ Shirou frantically replied, running through the streets of Uminari as if he was being chased. Shirou was supposed to drop by the Takamachi family today after seeing Nanoha off at cram school. Instead the two of them had decided to search the city for more Jewel Seeds, leaving Arisa and Suzuka behind with a flimsy excuse. Perched on Shirou's shoulder was Yuuno, the ferret acting as his guide towards possible hits on his search spells while Raising Heart performed the same role for Nanoha. This time it looked like Shirou was in luck, the source of the disturbance only minutes away from him when the Jewel Seed started to act up.

"We're here!"Shirou sprinted up the stairs with his shinai already in his grip as Yuuno clung onto his shoulder. Shirou noted with some satisfaction that his previous feat of reinforcement was still active. It was a lucky break because there was no way Shirou was going to find time to recreate a magic circuit on such a short notice.

It made that linker core thing that Nanoha possessed sound really easy to use.

'_You're already there?' _Nanoha interrupted Shirou's train of thought. _'Do you see-'_

Whatever Nanoha was going to say fell on deaf ears. Shirou was far more concerned with the huge canine monster coming at him with a set of razor sharp teeth.

* * *

Shirou watched as Nanoha stepped in to finish the job, bindings trapping the beast before the dog got knocked out by another salvo of attacks. As the smoke cleared, all that remained was a rather disoriented dog and a Jewel Seed, Nanoha rushing to the latter to collect it with her staff.

"[Receipt No. XVI]" Raising Heart confirmed the latest addition before returning into her sealed form, leaving Nanoha standing in her school uniform.

"That was far too close." Yuuno muttered, still looking with suspicion towards the dog that had previously tried to eat him alive. It had taken Nanoha a few minutes to get to the shrine, which had left Shirou and Yuuno with few options aside from dodging the giant dog while the former tried to beat it into submission.

Unfortunately the fight had been mostly 'dodging' and little 'beating into submission'. By now Shirou really needed a new shirt, his current one having been torn to shreds. Unfortunately this also meant that some of his bruises were on full display...

"Shirou! You're hurt!"

...making it rather visible to his friend that he had been understating his injuries earlier. Nanoha almost instantly reappeared at his side, sporting an angry glare which prompted Shirou to take a look at the oh-so interesting tree on the other side of the park.

"I'm fine." He tried to reassure her, definitely not intimidated by her steel grip...

"NO! You're NOT!"

… perhaps a little bit. Emiya Shirou had seen the angry Takamachi Nanoha on a few rare occasions. Nanoha just didn't get angry very easily. The girl would only become enraged whenever other people got hurt or if her friends did something incredibly stupid.

The first time she had reached that state of fury had been ingrained into his memories, teaching him just how forceful the girl could become when push came to shove.

Nether he Alisa or Suzuka would forget that day. It had taught him that, when dealing with Nanoha, sometimes defeat, followed by friendship, was just plain inevitable.

"I'm sorry..." Shirou apologized. He watched Nanoha's furious glare dissipate as she replaced it with a sad expression. "I didn't want you to worry." Shirou added.

"Shirou, it's okay for others to worry about you." Nanoha sighed. "Let's just get you home for now." Shirou offered little resistance as Nanoha started walking, pulling the boy along with her. "Kiritsugu will probably be worried once he sees you like this. Knowing you, you didn't even bother telling him..."

"Ah, yeah..."

At that moment Emiya Shirou realised just how much trouble he was really in.

"Emiya Shirou." Nanoha turned back to glare at the boy, leaving him to squirm under her gaze. "Is your father out of town again?"

"W-Why would you think that?" Shirou squeaked, his feeble attempt at deflecting the question failing miserably as Nanoha's gaze grew darker.

"Out of town?" The ferret eventually asked, somewhat eager to break the unnerving impasse between the two.

"Shirou's father tends to leave town for long periods of time." Nanoha explained while glaring at the sheepish looking boy. "This means that Shirou is all alone at home. We made a deal with his father that he'd stay with us so we can take care of him when Emiya-san is out of town."

"It's just a short trip this time." Shirou quickly added. "He'll be back really soon!"

"That doesn't matter!" Nanoha immediately shot down Shirou's excuse, applying a steel grip on Shirou's arm to the point that the boy winced, his limb painfully protested against the abuse as the girl once more dragged him along. "You're going home with us. Then you're going to tell my parents that you've been staying home alone... again."

"What? No way!" Shirou shook his head while attempting to dig his feet into the ground. "Your parents are just going to scold me. They'll probably ban me from the dojo- they'll ground me! You can't let me get grounded at a time like this, Yuuno needs my help!"

"We are going home Shirou." Nanoha continued, undeterred by his pleas.

"Nanoha!"

"We're… going...home!"

* * *

Emiya Shirou didn't like letting people down. He could face Takamachi Shirou's lecture head-on, even though the sad expression from Nanoha's father did make his stomach turn. He could accept the angry glares from Nanoha, the exhausted look from Kyouya and even the rather painful finger pokes on the forehead delivered by Miyuki.

But what the boy couldn't face was the disappointed expression of Takamachi Momoko.

"Shirou. Have you been fighting bullies again?"

The boy shook his head in response, tongue glued to the bottom of his mouth as he stared at the floor. He didn't want to look up, knowing that doing so would only make him feel worse. He gritted his teeth as he felt the woman pull of the tattered remains of his shirt, uncovering the many bruises on his chest.

The sudden intake of breath was enough for him to imagine what her expression probably looked like. Shirou closed his eyes and waited for the woman to speak up again.

"Shirou, you know that you're supposed to tell us when your father is out of town and you know that you're supposed to tell us when you are having trouble with other children again." Momoko paused, her voice sounding fragile as it trembled. "Why... Why won't you tell us anything?"

How could he explain it to her? No matter how many times he tried, they were just too kind, too understanding and far too willing to help him, to take care of him.

"I...I didn't want to be a bother."

"You're not a bother to us Shirou." Momoko immediately responded. Her voice remained calm and gentle, even as Shirou noticed that his excuse had saddened the woman. "We've told that to you several times now. Even Kiritsugu has told you that it would be best if you stayed with us whenever he's not there for you."

Kiritsugu had said that. Even so, Shirou had ignored his old man.

"Shirou... could you look at me? Please?"

What greeted Shirou when he looked up was the sight of Takamachi Momoko, kneeling in front of him as she looked at him with eyes brimming with warmth, the same she had passed down to her daughter. The sight alone was enough for his chest to ache as she patted him on the head.

There had once been a woman who had looked at him like that, someone who smiled and laughed with him. The fire had taken her from him, even been so cruel as to take away the memory of her face as well.

He never called Kiritsugu "father". He preferred just to call him his 'Old Man'. Emiya Kiritsugu was simply too different from the faint memory of the man who had raised him in his old life.

But Takamachi Momoko resembled the shadow of his mother too greatly, to the point where it pained Shirou to see the woman saddened because of him. It pained him because every time he watched her like this, the faint memory of his mother would blur over with Takamachi Momoko's face. And that left him horribly weak against this woman, causing him to cave in every single time…

"I'm sorry Moth… Momoko."

Momoko simply hugged the apologising boy, who wondered if she had simply missed the slip of his tongue, or if she simply didn't show it.

* * *

Yuuno watched from his temporary bed, the basket filled with the pillow and blankets Miyuki had gathered as the ferret gazed in Nanoha's direction. The girl gazed outside her window as she waited for the last member of their little group to arrive. Shirou was still missing, not answering his telepathic calls.

'_Nanoha. Is Shirou going to be alright?'_

"_It's okay." _The girl replied. _"Shirou always gets down whenever Mama decides to talk to him. It's different from when Kiritsugu scolds him…"_

'_Shirou... never mentions his family.'_ Yuuno carefully breached the subject._ 'Doesn't he have any other relatives, like uncles, aunts or nephews?'_

Nanoha shook her head _"Except for Kiritsugu, Shirou doesn't have anyone else. That's why we try to take care of him whenever he needs help but..."_

"Shirou seems to be a bit stubborn." Yuuno finished, deciding not to bother to speak telepathically at this point.

"Well then, sorry for being stubborn." Shirou softly spoke up, surprising the ferret as the boy slipped into Nanoha's room. Yuuno noted that the redhead did look a lot healthier after being bathed, bandaged and dressed. Somehow Shirou's new clothing seemed to bother the boy, Shirou awkwardly pulling on the sleeve of the shirt.

"Nanoha…" Shirou eventually asked. "Why do you people have brand new clothing for my size in this house? I don't remember leaving this here."

"Mom bought that for you. She likes to be prepared." Nanoha smiled, her grin growing even larger as Shirou scratched his cheek in embarrassment.

"Anyway," Yuuno jumped out of his comfy basket. "I have some questions I wanted to ask to you, especially about what happened last night."

"Okay," Shirou nodded."What is it?"

"As far as I know," Yuuno started, "there have been no sightings or records of any magical communities on this planet, even as far back as the belkan ages. In fact, we assumed that this world simply didn't possess the potential to build up such a society. Humans possessing developed linker cores are surprisingly low numbered on Earth."

"You talked about these linker cores last night." Shirou pointed out. "I still don't know what you mean by that."

"Right. The linker core is an organ that collects magical power from our surroundings and stores it inside our body." Yuuno explained. "Thus, when we use magic we can use this supply of power to chain together spells. To use magic is to link together patterns and constructs using the power stored in your linker core."

"That... is the strangest thing I have ever heard." Shirou confessed as he tried to wrap his mind around the image."That's not like my magic at all."

"Then Shirou," Nanoha clasped her hands. "what is the magic you use? I mean, unlike the spells I used with Raising Heart, there really wasn't much to see when you used magic. Even the shinai you used still looked the same to me."

"Well…. A magus is someone who turns his body into a conduit and using the circuits he possesses, converts either his own internal energy or that of the environment into prana which we then use to cast magic." Shirou recited from memory, drawing a blank from both Nanoha and Yuuno. "Magic... is pretty much pushing the world into doing what you want."

"That doesn't sound right at all." Yuuno shook his head. "I mean, even magic has to follow the laws of physics. You can't just change the world to suit your needs."

"No, that's exactly what magic is." Shirou nodded with a smile. "But, I'm a complete amateur so I can't really do much. I wasn't born with circuits of my own and I can only use one or two simple powers."

"Shirou can use two different kinds of magic? Can you show them here?" Nanoha asked, the girl clearly excited at the idea of seeing more magic. Shirou couldn't help but feel somewhat guilty at the sight of Nanoha staring at him with eyes wide in anticipation. He knew that his powers were not as flashy as what Nanoha had shown before...

"Like I said, I don't have circuits of my own so I'll need some time to prepare one. That will take me a while... and I can't be disturbed." Shirou added the final part after a moment of deliberation.

"Eh? Is Shirou's magic that unreliable?" Nanoha complained. "Will it fail when you are disturbed?"

"No, the circuit will go out of control and I'll probably die."

Nanoha acted as if she had been struck in the face, a look of horror replaced the smile she had previously worn.

W-What? T-Thats..."

"The first thing Kiritsugu taught me is that to use magecraft is to walk with death." Shirou continued. "If I want to use magic then I have to be serious about it."

"Perhaps Shirou's father was just being somewhat cautious." Yuuno suggested, the very notion of such dangerous magic making it hard to wrap his mind around it. "I mean, both he and Shirou use this method all the time so it can't be that dangerous?"

"He sounded serious... but it might have been just like him." Shirou lied, willing to acknowledge Yuuno's interpretation for Nanoha's sake.

Shirou knew that he had said the right thing when the girl visibly relaxed before she started pouting at him. "T-thats a mean joke from you!" Nanoha shook her head. "I was scared to death!"

"Ehe. Sorry about that." The boy smiled at the girl. "But, I really need to concentrate and it might take some time. Also, I'm going to get sweaty because of the heat..."

"Heat?" Yuuno suddenly looked up at the particular tidbit of info. "Heat." Shirou answered. "Using magic is... kinda hot."

"Oh, so Alisa was right that you are rather hot blooded." Nanoha nodded to herself, having made yet another strange conclusion which Shirou felt no need to rectify. "Then, I'll grab a towel for you to clean yourself up afterwards. Maybe you should take off your shirt if you're going to get it dirty?"

"Hmm? Sure." Shirou nodded. "Then Nanoha, can you stay outside so nobody can walk in until I'm done preparing? Yuuno can stay here to keep an eye on me if he wants."

"Sure! Just don't start with the magic without me." Nanoha nodded as she closed the door behind her.

It took Shirou several minutes to clear his mind. The pain from his bruises faded away as he once more emptied himself. Once more the image of the circuit appeared in his mind as the burning in his lower spine increased.

This time the image came faster than normal, although it still took him quite some time to stabilize the circuit. When he finally opened his eyes he noted from the alarm in Nanoha's room that it had taken him almost half an hour to form the circuit. The familiar burning sensation at the back of his spine confirming the presence of his newly-created circuit.

"I'm done." Shirou called out, the door opening as Nanoha slipped back in. After taking another look at him, her expression showing that he looked less than impressive, she handed him the wet towel in her hands, which Shirou gratefully accepted.

"Strange," Yuuno spoke as he made his way towards Shirou who was currently cleaning his face with the towel. "I can sense some magical energy emanating from you, but it's very faint."

"Can you finally show us something Shirou?" Nanoha urged the boy. Shirou noted that having to wait outside for almost half an hour had clearly tested the girl's patience.

"Then, I'll start with something simple." the boy started. "This skill is rather useless, but it looks rather nice." Shirou quickly added as he watched Nanoha's expression fall at his initial description. Carefully picking up Raising Heart, which had been resting on a napkin on top of Nanoha's desk, he took the gem in the palm of his right hand. Slowly he closed his hand, hiding the gem from the rest of the room.

"Trace, on."

He began with the analysis. Shirou slowly realised that he couldn't comprehend the magical device he held in his hand. It's true form wasn't the gem itself but something deeper, space folded away in corners his mind couldn't reach.

Even so, the basic shape it had assumed right now was something he could understand. Light condensed itself into a tight sphere positioned above the palm of his left hand. When the light faded it revealed the presence of a small red gem, resting in the palm of Shirou's open hand.

"Raising Heart!" Nanoha pointed in surprise, the girl eyes shifting from the closed fist back to the open hand before reaching for the small gem.

"Teleportation?" Yuuno spoke up, the ferret equally surprised. "Without a stable transportation matrix, and with so little power?"

"[I am still here, my masters!]" The mechanical voice of the device called out, muffled by Shirou's hand covering the object.

Nanoha's surprise grew as Shirou finally opened his right hand, showing the original Raising Heart still resting in his palm. "It's still there!"

"I didn't teleport it. I just copied it." Shirou explained as he handed Nanoha the real device. "I created it by projecting the image that I managed to get from Raising Heart."

"So... it's another Raising Heart?" Nanoha asked, staring closely at the second red gem before gently poking it with a finger. "Hello there!" She cooed to the gem, "Can you say hello like your big sister over here?"

"[I cannot register the presence of my copy. It seems to be severely malfunctioning.]"

"It's just has the shape of the gem itself." Shirou confessed. "I can't copy Raising Heart itself because I can't understand her. She's so complicated that I can't read her completely, and even if I could I'd never understand enough to recreate her all by myself."

"Even so," Yuuno grabbed the fake gem," this isn't something I can do. Create the illusion, yes, but this is a solid object. You could create anything with this... this is amazing!"

"It's also useless." Shirou shrugged. "Projections don't last long, are always worse than the original and once they take a hit then they're gone. Other than for rituals most people don't use it. Still, It's the only thing I'm talented in".

"They don't last long?" Yuuno asked as he continued to study the fake gem.

"Yeah, It will probably break sometime soon."

"Hey, hey Shirou! What else can you make?" Nanoha smiled at Shirou in anticipation. "What about... the shinai? Can you make the shinai as well? I can go get it for you if you want?"

"Sure, but…"

Yuuno watched as Nanoha raced out of the door, only to return several minutes later with several other objects besides the sword.

"Then, lets start!" The girl cheered as Shirou gave a weak smile at the girl's antics.

* * *

The next morning Yuuno noticed that most of the objects, consisting of several red gems two shinai, a copy of her cell phone's outer casing and a failed blanket, which had all been hidden under her bed were missing…

All except for the two shinai.

Yuuno, being more focused on the fact that Nanoha was threatening to take him into the bath, completely forgot about this particular bit of information as he escaped for safe harbours in the arms of an unsuspecting Shirou.

* * *

"Lyrical Magical! Jewel Seed serial twenty, seal!" Nanoha chanted, the formless monster she had been facing dissipating as her last attack reduced it to a single jewel, which Raising Heart promptly absorbed.

"[Receipt No. XX]" Raising Heart lit up, marking yet another successful capture. Nanoha leaned on the staff, the girl clearly winded as her breathing slowly returned to normal. The hunt for the Jewel Seeds had become more taxing every day, the patrols and her training cutting into her free time and her sleep.

"Good job Nanoha." Yuuno congratulated the girl. "This makes the fifth Jewel Seed we've collected already."

"Hmm!" Nanoha smiled. "I'm sure Shirou will be happy to hear that!"

"_I am." _Shirou's disembodied voice confirmed Nanoha's assumption._ "I'm really sorry for being unable to help out Nanoha. Momoko refuses to let me out of her sight right now...'"_

The girl really didn't regret telling on Shirou towards her parents. For the last few days Shirou had been 'enjoying' a well-deserved break from training and patrolling, recovering under the tender care of her Mother… unconditional care to be precise. That also meant that she was forced to help Yuuno on her own.

It wasn't that hard, really. Nanoha was confident that she could keep it up until Shirou was completely healed and she doubted that even her mother would be able to keep Shirou confined for more than a few days at most.

'_...I see. Nanoha, Yuuno. If you are done over there then you should head directly towards my house.'_

'_What for? Do we need to pick up something for you?' _ Nanoha asked. '_Mom will probably let you leave the house if you get back in time...'_

'_That's not it._ _It's my old man, he's finally back. He just came over to pick me up!'_

* * *

A sense of excitement filled Yuuno Scrya as Nanoha walked towards the entrance of Shirou's house with the ferret perched on top of her shoulder. Shirou's little demonstration had been a sample of Thaumaturgy that had piqued his interest, to say the least. The idea of meeting a fully trained master who outclassed Shirou by a magnitude, a 'real magus' as Shirou had called it, was enough to make the scholar inside of him drool as a starving man in front of a feast.

Yuuno Scrya, while talented in many areas, was a scholar at heart. Yes, he had mastered the art of barriers and binding to a level few adults could hope to match, but it was his desire to seek knowledge and learning about other cultures that had pushed him to the path he was on now. Shirou's summary of the local magical culture had been incomplete, but the few answers the boy managed to answer had only made him wonder what tale lied beneath the history of the magicians of this world.

Had these so called 'Magi' secluded themselves from the rest of the world in the far past because they attempted to protect the uninitiated? The nature of their magic seemed inherently dangerous if what Shirou had said was to be believed. Had the magical society moved out of the spotlight to guide the world from within shadows, steering it towards a better future?

Of course, their exile from the regular population could also have been the result of a conflict in the past. Maybe a civil war between factions of magic users, similar to the history of the Belkan empires, lead to the destruction of their major civilisations long ago. Such an event would have left only a handful of survivors, trapped in the far corners of modern societies. Forced into hiding from the rest of the world, those last remnants would try to maintain their practices and rituals in an attempt to preserve their culture.

On many worlds connected to the dimensional sea, magic either flourished or vanished. A world hosting a magic civilisation in hiding was not a common occurrence. Was it the very nature of the Thaumaturgical System that had caused this unconventional development?

The man who could possibly answer those question was Emiya Kiritsugu, who Shirou would fondly refer to as his 'old man'. It made Yuuno wonder if the man was like one of the Scrya's elders, aged but wise and willing to dispense their knowledge towards the next generation.

But perhaps the man was more like Shirou, who was clearly driven by a sense of justice. Perhaps Emiya Kiritsugu was more like the fabled enforcers of the TSAB, a strong and respected mage who upheld the rules of this secret society, easily capable of holding his own in a fight.

"Kiritsugu! Shirou! I've come to visit!" Nanoha interrupted Yuuno's thoughts as she let herself into the Emiya residence, kicking off her shoes before slipping into one of the spare pair of slippers left at the door for eventual guests…

The fact that she slipped into a small pink set which was obviously Nanoha's size was not lost on Yuuno, nor was the familiarity in which she navigated through the house.

"Welcome Nanoha. Just make yourself at home."

Yuuno watched with baited breath as two sets of footsteps, made their way down the stairs. First the familiar sight of Shirou appeared, followed by what appeared to be…

"Hello there Nanoha-chan. Ah, thanks for taking care of Shirou while I was gone..."

...a scruffy-looking man.

"Kiritsugu!" Nanoha pointed an accusing finger towards the man. "You should tell us whenever he's leaving town like this. Shirou didn't say anything again so the two of you caused a lot of trouble!"

"Ahaha," The man scratched the back of his head as he let out as sheepish laugh. "Sorry about that..."

Yuuno Scrya was a little bit confused. This was the man who was supposed to be the 'great magus' ?

* * *

"So," Kiritsugu spoke, putting down the cup of tea Shirou had handed him after taking a sip. "What was this important matter which is so urgent that you have to to discuss it with me right now? Did… did Shirou get into trouble again?"

"Well, that.."

"Perhaps we should let Yuuno do the explaining." Nanoha suggested.

"That might be easier." Shirou agreed, nodding towards the ferret who had jumped up on the table.

"Then, please excuse me" Yuuno spoke up, pausing as Kiritsugu's expression froze into one of surprise.

"Ah," Yuuno scratched his head in his ferret form, slightly embarrassed by seeing his friend's reaction to his form. "Don't be alarmed. I'm…

"Who are you?"

Kiritsugu voice was deceptively soft but the intensity behind it was enough to make Yuuno shiver on the spot. The man wasn't just looking at him, he was sizing him up… as if to determine if he was a threat.

"You don't seem to be close, seeing as you haven't triggered the bounded field protecting this house. I must admit that this is the first time I've seen a talking familiar… but that alone is not enough reason for me to end this facade. What reason do you have for doing something like this?"

"W-What?"

It was Nanoha who first responded, the girl clearly having trouble understanding just what was playing out in front of her. "Kiritsugu... what-"

"Be quiet Nanoha." Kiritsugu cut of the girl, who reacted as if struck.

"I-I'm sorry if I somehow insulted you." Yuuno desperately apologised. "Know that I honestly didn't intend to do so!"

"Seriously Dad!? What are you talking about? This is not way to treat someone who came asking for our help!" To Nanoha's increasing horror it seemed that Kiritsugu was even ignoring his own son as he continued to glare at Yuuno.

"Then." The man spoke harshly. "If you are so determined not to insult me, and are really looking for 'help' I suggest that you talk to me face to face instead and ditch the familiar!"

"A familiar?" Nanoha shook her head, alternating between looking at Yuuno and Kiritsugu. B-But Yuuno is a magical ferr..."

Yuuno jumped off the table, vanishing in a display of green light before the shape of the ferret suddenly warped. As the lightshow dimmed what remained was a human boy, who looked somewhat sickish.

"EEEEH! Y-Yuuno vanished!" Nanoha cried out while pointed accusingly at the blond boy. "And now there's a strange boy sitting where Yuuno was just now!"

Kiritsugu seemed to be in a similar state of confusion, eyes wavering as if they refused to believe what he had just seen.

"Yuuno... is that you?" Shirou asked. His question seemed to leave the blond-haired boy somewhat confused until something finally seemed to dawn on the boy.

"You... didn't you see me in my human form when you first found me?"

"NO!... I thought you were a cute magical animal!" Nanoha cried out in dismay, clearly distressed by the sudden turn of events. "I let you sleep in my room…. I-I let you bathe with my sister!"

"T-That wasn't what I... I swear it isn't as it sounds!" Yuuno desperately called out.

"I think," Emiya Kiritsugu spoke, "that we might have gotten off on the wrong foot here. Boy, your name, it was Yuuno Scrya, right?"

"Y-yes." Yuuno replied, the boy clearly glad to shift the conversation back on topic, and away from discussing just where he had spent his ferreting days.

"Very well Yuuno. Lets start with just what you are and why you are looking for help from me, my son and Nanoha over there..."

There was no trace of suspicion or anger in Kiritsugu's voice, which made Yuuno feel somewhat better. The cold calculating glance from the older magus was still there though, reminding Yuuno that the man wasn't the passive and carefree person who he had originally labeled him as.

This... was a magus?

* * *

It had taken the rest of the afternoon and the evening for the children to bring Kiritsugu up to speed, the discussion only paused to allow Nanoha to call home to inform her mother that she was staying for dinner and for Shirou to scramble something together from whatever he had gotten from the convenience store while Yuuno and Nanoha talked to his father.

For Shirou, who had only known Kiritsugu as a kind yet somewhat distant person, it was interesting, to say the least, to see his old man act so serious, grilling both Nanoha and Yuuno for details on subjects the children had barely spent any attention on. Nanoha's and Yuuno's magic had been somewhat of surprise for the man, but even that didn't compare to the reaction Emiya Kiritsugu showed when Yuuno explained just what the Jewel Seeds entailed.

Kiritsugu face had become as white as a sheet, looking as if he had seen a ghost. Unlike with Nanoha's magic, which required a demonstration from Yuuno and Nanoha, Kiritsugu instantly accepted Yuuno's warning about the Jewel Seeds. As the evening passed Kiritsugu once more grilled Yuuno, leaving the boy more confused with every question as Kiritsugu's mood darkened…

"So, what you are saying," Kiritsugu slowly repeated Yuuno, "is that the transport provided by your association..."

"Administration." Yuuno timidly corrected the man. "It's the Time-Space Administration Bureau to be precise."

"...that your transport carrying artifacts of great value was suddenly heavily damaged," Kiritsugu continued. "causing it to scatter the Jewel Seeds onto a world where the Administration Bureau has no influence."

"Yes." Yuuno nodded in agreement. "That's why I decided to head out myself. It was clear to me that it would take a while before an official recovery mission could be organised."

For the first time that evening Kiritsugu gave what could pass as a nod of approval at the boy. "That was probably the best choice you could have made in your position." He pointed out. "By the time you and the recovery squad would have arrived here the Jewel Seeds would have been collected by the perpetrator behind this incident."

"I just couldn't let the people on this world get into danger..." Yuuno continued on, before he froze as the latter part of Kiritsugu statement sunk in. "Perpetrators? What do you mean by that? As far as I know this was caused by an accident involving the Jewel Seeds themselves."

Kiritsugu shook his head. "I'm sorry, but to me this whole situation doesn't sounds like an accident. The dangerous artefacts that you dug up were transported on a ...spaceship." Kiritsugu mouthed the last word, clearly having trouble saying the sentence with a straight face. "Then it suffered a fatal breakdown _right_ as it passed Earth, allowing whoever is in the neighbourhood to gather them from a world that appears to have neither the knowledge nor the technology to simply hinder anyone from your civilisation. To me this sounds like a rather easy extraction of transported goods compared to having to retrieve them from a well-guarded dig site."

"But that's insane!" Yuuno protested at the very idea. "Who... who would even attempt something as dangerous as that? Lost Logia are hard to control, even when sealed. The damage a single, out of control Jewel Seed can do is..."

"_That's_ why I believe this wasn't an accident." Kiritsugu pressed on. "Yuuno, why weren't the Jewel Seeds destroyed along with the ship? How likely is it that the ship suffered a breakdown right in the vicinity of Earth?"

"That's… The Jewel Seeds are rather resilient to damage. After all, they survived re-entry without problems. No, it's more than that. Not only did they survive re-entry, they didn't impact the ground at anything near velocity. For all I know the Jewel Seeds teleported themselves towards the nearest surface area. Still, taking down a ship while traveling inside the dimensional sea... It's nearly impossible."

"Just as impossible as someone wanting to use the Jewel Seeds?"

"B-But!" Nanoha nervously waved Raising Heart around, the device still in it's staff form from her previous demonstration. "We already sealed five of the Jewel Seeds in the last week and so far we've never seen anyone else looking for them!"

"You didn't skip school right? Shirou?"

"We didn't." Shirou hastily replied. "Really, we didn't!"

"We... only patrol one part of the city at a time, mostly looking at the end of the day." Yuuno's voice became more strained as a horrible thought occurred to him. "When a Jewel Seed is activated we can sense it from a large distance, but it's possible that someone has been gathering the Jewel Seeds without us even noticing it. It would only take a single moment, a single spell to set up a barrier to isolate an activated Jewel Seed. That would keep the onlookers away, along with our search spells."

"Why would anyone do something like that!?" Nanoha looked around in utter confusion. "The Jewel Seeds are so dangerous, so why?"

"Money, power, influence. Things like that are enough for someone to do such things." Kiritsugu answered. "I guess that even on other worlds, people are still human."

"So… what now?" Yuuno asked, the boy looking rather lost.

"All we can do now is collect all the Jewel Seeds we can find." Kiritsugu noted. "And if we find another group looking for the Jewel Seeds, we'll intercept them. If they prove hostile, we can assume they were responsible for the incident and act appropriately."

"Will you help us?" Yuuno asked, staring hopefully at the man who has so quickly decided on a course of action. "You are a magic user like Shirou. Surely..."

Kiritsugu hesitated, before looking at Nanoha. Eventually it seemed he had made up his mind. "Yuuno, I'm going to ask you and Nanoha to come back tomorrow afternoon. It's a Saturday, right?"

"Hmm." Nanoha nodded as her expression brightened somewhat. "You'll help Yuuno out?"

"The Jewel Seeds are too dangerous to leave unattended." Kiritsugu nodded. "Unfortunately neither Shirou or I have a sure way of sealing them as you described it. We'll be relying on you and your... device to see us through it all. Are you prepared for that Nanoha? This might become more than you can handle..."

"Of course!" Nanoha answered without hesitation. "If we all do our best, things will be alright!"

* * *

Kiritsugu had excused himself from the room after that, pointing out that it'd be better if Shirou walked Nanoha home before the evening came to an end.

As Shirou and Nanoha walked through the streets the boy couldn't help but wonder what had bothered his father so much. Yuuno had returned to his ferret form, comfortably perched onto Shirou's shoulder as he accompanied the two of them. None of them said a word as they walked, remaining silent until Nanoha's house came in sight. Still...

"Yuuno."

"Yes, Shirou?"

"I know that you're a good person." Shirou began. "But... I can't let you stay at Nanoha's place anymore."

"Eh? Yuuno can't stay?" Nanoha pouted even as Shirou shot her a rather dry look.

"Nanoha. Yuuno's a boy..."

"Yes," Nanoha nodded. "we know that already."

"A boy in the form of a ferret." Shirou continued. "A cute animal to which Miyuki has already shown that she'd keep with her at all times if she could..."

"I... was hoping nobody was going to mention that part..." Yuuno whimpered, turning his head away from Nanoha's smile.

"It's not that bad." The girl continued.

Shirou shook his head "She'd keep him with her _at all times_, including her bath time..."

"I-I... think I'm going to agree with Shirou here, Nanoha." Yuuno suddenly spoke up as he entrenched himself on Shirou's shoulder. "It might be better to stay at his house. We can still talk telepathically and Raising Heart possesses all the materials you'll need if you want to study late at night. Besides, this gives me more time to talk with Kiritsugu when Shirou isn't carrying me around."

"You could just walk you know?" The other boy noted. Aren't you mostly healed by now?

"Ah! you're right." Yuuno apologised to Shirou as he let out an somewhat nervous laugh. "I should probably be able to fly around by now."

"...Fly?"

Takamachi Nanoha had come to a full stop as her undivided attention came to bear on the ferret.

* * *

Shirou knew that the saturday morning classes at Seishou Elementary School weren't always that interesting, but today it seemed even more boring than usual. By now Shirou knew that Nanoha was using Raising Heart to run training simulations while doing the assignments the teacher had put on the board, which meant that she didn't waste time sitting the the classroom unlike himself.

A small part of Shirou couldn't help but feel jealous at Nanoha's talent. Yuuno had mentioned just how much of a fast learner she was and how on a more advanced world, she would have been discovered years ago. Nanoha had seemed very interested in the idea of whole academies of children training to become mages, learning the high level theory and practical experience needed…

Turning his attention back to his own work, Shirou sighed as he tried to make sense of the exercise he was supposed to solve. Asking Nanoha was out of the question. Doing so would only disturb her training, which was really important and would only show just how far behind he really was. Suzuka was sitting too far away for him to ask for assistance, leaving him with only one other option. Shirou's last hope was Alisa Bannings, the girl who was currently glaring at him ever since work hour had started.

Alisa had been rather peeved after hearing that Shirou took the 'poor cuddly ferret' home. Apparently in doing so the boy had botched her own plans, namely to pick it the animal herself so she could keep it as a pet.

It hadn't helped that she and Suzuka had recently spotted him during one of his patrols with Yuuno perched on top of his shoulder. Apparently the idea that Yuuno was a trained pet ferret had been firmly ingrained into their minds. The fact that Alisa had missed out on the chance to have him for herself had made her rather cross.

Incidentally, Yuuno had been rather grateful that Alisa hadn't gotten her hands on him, especially after Shirou mentioned that Alisa was a dog-loving person and had several canines at her mansion…

Suddenly Shirou realised that, aside from his classmates, there was someone who might be able to help him out.

'_Yuuno, are you still listening?'_

'_Is there something wrong Shirou?'_

A smile of relief appeared on Shirou's face as he heard Yuuno's voice._ "I'd like your help with something..."_

* * *

"I can't believe you asked Yuuno to help you with your homework!" Nanoha shook her head as the they walked towards the Emiya residence. The Takamachi's weren't expecting Nanoha to come home until dinner, a fact that gave them the whole afternoon to work on their Jewel Seed problem and for Kiritsugu to start helping them out.

"It can't be helped, you were busy." Shirou answered. "Anyway, lets hurry up! My old man is probably waiting for us."

Shirou had found his father up early that morning, busy pulling out maps of the city and marking down all the places where the trio had recovered Jewel Seeds. When Shirou asked, Kiritsugu had only replied that he was checking if there was a pattern in the places they had been found, something neither Nanoha or Shirou had thought about.

"Dad really is great like that. In just one day he already comes up with a plan." Shirou beamed as he relayed his father's actions to his friends. Shirou noted with satisfaction that, while having started off poorly, Yuuno was warming up to the older male.

"Hmm! I can't wait to see more magic." Nanoha spoke up. "He did say he'd have something prepared for me today. I wonder what it is? Maybe some magical spell to find all the Jewel Seeds at once?"

"If Dad knew something like that he'd probably use it himself." Shirou dismissed Nanoha's dream as they entered his house. Soon it became clear that Kiritsugu was neither in the living room nor upstairs.

"Dad must be in the workshop then." Shirou noted. "Looks like we might get to see some magic after all."

Nanoha was beaming.

* * *

"What is this... it smells!" Nanoha complained, taking yet another sniff at the cup Kiritsugu had handed her.

"Well... think of it as medicine." Kiritsugu answered vaguely. "It's normally used by people who have magic circuits but don't have control over their switch. I take it Shirou already explained things about magic circuits?"

"Hmm, he did." Nanoha nodded as she shot another look at the brew in her hands. "Shirou never said anything about a switch though. He only said that normal magi are born with circuits..."

"Thats... true in a certain point of view." Kiritsugu paused as he tried to find the right explanation. "It's more that magi are people who are born with magic circuits which they can use at will. Magi can instantly activate them by using a 'switch' to turn them on. People like Shirou, who are not born with that switch, are only capable of recreating a magic circuit from scratch and are thus unable to use their magic like a magus."

"Ah…" Nanoha nodded. "and this medicine is…?"

"That medicine will, if you possess such a switch, activate any dormant circuit you possess." Kiritsugu explained. "I don't know if you are capable of using thaumaturgy like I am, since I have no clue about what these linker cores are or what they do, but there's a chance that aside from that core you also possess a switch of some sort. I'd like to have you try it. You already showed that you can use magic so, even though it's unpleasant, the feeling should be somewhat manageable for you."

"Wait..." Yuuno interrupted. "Doing something like this, Isn't that dangerous?"

"I'm sure Kiritsugu knows what he's doing." Nanoha spoke without hesitation while shooting the vile liquid a determined look. After a few moments she seemed to gather the courage to lift the cup towards her lips before gulping down half of the liquid.

"Uaah! It's horrible!" Nanoha wheezed the moment after she swallowed the liquid, her body shaking in disgust as the fluid made it's way to her stomach. She froze as she watched Kiritsugu look at her with baited breath. Several moments passed the girl holding her breath...

"Is.. Is something supposed to happen?" Nanoha looked down at her body in confusion as nothing happened. She had expected another light show, like when she first activated Raising Heart, but it seemed that, aside from the foul taste in her mouth, there had been no change.

Kiritsugu shook his head. "Well, that's a failure then."

"Ehh!" Nanoha cried out. "I drank that for nothing?!" Seeing Kiritsugu scratch his head as he sheepishly laughed only fueled her anger. "I drank this dirty stuff for nothing? What was it made off? Bark and moss?"

"Wow," Kiritsugu looked at her with respect. "you do have a good taste, don't you? Well, you are a child of Midori-ya…"

"Now Nanoha, it can't be helped." Shirou tried to calm down his fuming friend, thus directing her rage towards himself as she turned to face him.

"You didn't have to drink this fluid!" The girl stated. "It's icky! Here, you drink the rest of it then!"

"W-what" Shirou stammered, completely caught off guard as the disgruntled girl pinched his nose shut with one hand while the other pressed the cup against his mouth. Shirou tried to pull himself free, gagging as the fluid was forced through his throat. "Ehh!" Shirou gasped as Nanoha finally released him. "Nanoha! That's…..that's pretty disgusting actually."

"See! It's icky! Kiritsugu should..."

Any remark for Kiritsugu dissipated from Nanoha's thoughts the moment she noticed that Shirou fell over, the boy retching as his breathing became erratic.

"Kiritsugu!" Nanoha's desperate cry didn't fall on deaf ears, the man rushing over to Shirou's side.

Moments later Shirou threw up again, shaking as sweat streamed down his face. His circuits blazed as his body burned once more.

* * *

"Shirou's okay now." Kiritsugu stated as he walked down the stairs. "He'll probably be in pain for a few days but by then he'll have become accustomed to it.".

Nanoha and Yuuno waited below while the man put the boy to sleep in his room. All of them had been caught by surprise by Shirou's sudden reaction, Nanoha's lips trembling as she recalled what, and who, had caused Shirou's current predicament.

"Kiritsugu... I'm so-"

"This was my fault." Kiritsugu cut Nanoha off before she could even finish her sentence. "I never assumed that Shirou would possessed a switch himself. I screwed up there. If I had known, I would have helped him master it much earlier. But because he wasn't prepared for the pain he immediately lost control…"

"W-Wait a minute…" Yuuno spoke up. "Shirou told me that using magic was dangerous, but just activating his circuits causes such discomfort!? And.. you were going to have Nanoha do the same? If Nanoha possessed a switch, would it be her that needed to lie in bed right now?"

"Unlikely." Kiritsugu calmly rebutted the boy's accusation. "Shirou's reaction is more extreme compared to my own after I first started training. It's probably because he has been using a makeshift circuit all this time, which probably increased the shock. But Nanoha has, by your explanation, used magic that is far more taxing than Shirou's own powers. Because of that I assumed that Nanoha's body was already accustomed to handling the strain and I didn't see any reason to make her worry."

"That's..." Nanoha looked to the ceiling, as if she could look at Shirou through the solid matter separating them. "My magic doesn't hurt at all. It's easy and free. I thought… that it was the same for Shirou, that he was joking when he said that it was dangerous."

"That sure sounds like a convenient power." Kiritsugu sat down. "I was wrong. I expected you to be like Shirou. I'm sorry, I believed that you had already prepared yourself. What was I thinking? You're only nine…"

"I..I'm not weak!" Nanoha suddenly sprang up, glaring at Kiritsugu. "I'm not afraid to get hurt!"

"Getting hurt?" Kiritsugu coldly stated at the girl. "Takamachi Nanoha, listen well. To use magecraft is to walk with death. That is the first rule anyone who uses magecraft should know. No matter what form it takes, magic is something that twists the world and will hurt people in reality. That's why anyone who uses magic should be prepared to pay for that."

"I don't believe that! " Nanoha protested. "This magic, the magic that Yuuno taught me isn't bad. It gave me a purpose, a path for me to walk on. I can't believe that it's a bad thing!"

"Your magic, the magic of these Jewel Seeds have been rampaging around the city." Kiritsugu retorted. "Yuuno himself said that it can destroy this world if left unattended. Do you still want to call that magic good?"

"Magic is a tool." Yuuno came to Nanoha aid. "It's the user that defines if an act of magic is used for good or bad. Even the Jewel Seeds themselves aren't inherently evil, they only need to be kept safe so that-"

"Magic... Thaumaturgy isn't just a convenient tool that you can pull out of your toolkit and use whenever it suits your need! Especially something as ludicrous as those Jewel Seeds!" Kiritsugu snarled, both children startled as the man lost his composure. "Wish Granting artefacts? Miracle creating Lost Logia? Nothing is without a price! There's no…."

Suddenly the room went silent. Nanoha watched as the man trembled in his seat. Kiritsugu clutched his right hand with his left, almost as if he had burned it.

He was no longer angry. Now the man simply looked haunted.

"I'm sorry..." He apologized. "I... showed you something ugly today. Please forgive me for this, and for what happened to Shirou..."

The man looked up as Nanoha placed her hand on his trembling limb. Seeing Kiritsugu looking so lost, was enough for the girl forgive him for his previous outburst.

"It's okay!" Nanoha smiled. "If we all do our best we'll be fine! Once Shirou feels better and we all get back on our feet we will certainly gather all the remaining Jewel Seeds. Let's do our best, shall we?"

"Ah, " Kiritsugu tried to smile. "lets do our best."

* * *

The sun had started to set, signalling the end of yet another day in Uminari. On the rooftop of one of Uminari's larger buildings, four people could be found overlooking the city where a giant tree had been rampaging mere moments ago.

Of the two boys one was visibly gasping for breath, the redhead having snuck out of his house to help his friends only to find that he had been far too late to do anything. The man who had followed him to the rooftop seemed similarly exhausted, although not as physically like the boy.

"We... troubled all sorts of people this time..." Takamachi Nanoha whispered, looking at the city with a sad expression unbecoming of a nine year old.

"What are you talking about!" Yuuno tried to console her. "You're doing a fine job.."

"I noticed it." The girl confessed. "I noticed that the boy had grabbed a Jewel Seed. Even so I wanted to take a day off, to think 'It's probably just my imagination'."

"That's..." Yuuno paused, having nothing to say. "Nanoha, don't look sad. It's not your-"

"That's right, that was your mistake." Kiritsugu's voice was calm as he walked towards the girl crouched down on her knees. "It seems you already realized it."

"Hmm," The girl nodded as she bit back her tears. "My first failure since I became a mage." The girl croaked out, her voice trembling. "You were right after all mister Emiya. I'm not-"

"No, I was wrong. You did well."

It was strange to hear Kiritsugu speak so warmly as he sat down next to the girl. Nanoha looked up at him, confusion clearly visible on her face.

"But..."

"You made a mistake, but then you immediately corrected it with everything you had." Kiritsugu continued. "Even though things went wrong, only a few people got hurt. The pain you feel right now... use it to focus on how you can change things next time, instead of thinking back on how things went wrong." The hand that ruffled her hair was rough, the gesture almost strong enough to push her over. Even so, the man avoided her gaze by staring at the city, even as he patted her on the head.

For a moment she wanted to protest against his treatment, to say that she failed, to say that she wasn't a little girl anymore who needed to be petted whenever she cried.

But Kiritsugu's hesitant movements betrayed how inadequate he was with comforting people. This clumsy gesture was, most likely, the best this strange man could come up with; the same way he would most likely cheer up Shirou...

Nanoha couldn't help but think that all the Emiyas were just horribly awkward like that. Even so, they were honest. The man who had been angry at how unresolved she had been yesterday was now trying to say that she had done alright.

"Aren't you being a little soft on me?" The girl complained, causing Kiritsugu to chuckle as he stood up once more.

"Ah, maybe I am. But there's enough to do now besides moping. Could you two bring Shirou home for me? He's too tired to walk home alone at this point."

"What about you?" Yuuno asked.

"I'll take care of the people who are still around here." Kiritsugu nodded towards the town. "By tomorrow most of them won't remember that a giant tree sprouted in the middle of the city."

"B-but?" Nanoha tried to protest but fell silent as Kiritsugu looked at her.

"Listen Nanoha. " He spoke. "Cleaning up after children's failures is an adult's task as well. That is... probably all I can do."

Kiritsugu walked towards staircase, turning around at the door to look back one more time. At first Nanoha though he was looking at the three of them. Only after he left was it that she realised he hadn't been looking at any of them, his mind somewhere else.

Whatever Kiritsugu was thinking off, whatever the sight had made him remember, Nanoha couldn't help but think that Emiya Kiritsugu looked like he was in pain. What failure was he reminded of? What had he done wrong that the memory still hurt him, to make him sport such a sad face in the light of the setting sun?

On that day Nanoha decided that, instead of just trying her best, she would give everything she had. That way people like Kiritsugu wouldn't have to clean up after her mistakes ever again.

* * *

AN: slightly delayed rerelease.


	3. Chapter 3

**III: Our opponent is also a magical girl?**

_The sound of the ringing chime echoed through the mostly empty pub, accompanied by the man stepping foot inside the dimly lit place. His features remained hidden, courtesy of the worn-out trenchcoat he was wearing. Aside from the man but a handful of people occupied the space, the evening hours already coming to an end. The number of guests had been low that evening to begin with, courtesy of the chaos following the explosion in downtown Uminari, and thus it had been quieter than usual. The few customers that had entered had been confused, some speaking of a giant tree while others spoke of bright lights hovering in the sky._

_But those stories soon ceased, the people telling them seemly clearing their minds and forgetting about the whole incident. By now nobody had any memories of what had really happened in Uminari this afternoon._

_The man simply made his way over to one of the further tables, occupied by what seemed to be a middle-aged woman. The ashtray, which was already filled with several burned out buds, revealed that she had been waiting in her spot for a while. She didn't respond to his presence even as he sat down, instead taking her time to finish her drink. _

_Kiritsugu had barely noticed the small barrier the brunette had set up. It had been more work than just hypnotising the personnel of the pub, but it did ensure that their conversation would remain private even on the off chance that someone tried to listen in._

"_This wasn't what we had agreed on when we met last year." The woman pointed out before pulling a new cigarette out of the pack she pulled from her pocket, her hands trembling as she failed to light it at her first attempt. "After I figured out who you were you promised that you'd lay low as long as you were here, because you only wanted to raise your son away from trouble."_

"_So I did."_

"_I did not allow you to set up a workshop on these lands," The woman snapped, "just so that you could call me and tell me that I have to run damage control in my own backyard because a giant tree spawned into downtown Uminari!"_

"_Like I told you , this is-"_

"_No! No excuses!" The brunette slammed her hand on the table as she glared at the man. "If the Association finds out that something as chaotic as this played out under my watch, If anyone upstairs gets even the slightest hint of what happened…"_

_She paused to take a sip from her cigarette, slowly letting the smoke escape from her lungs while dabbling in the smoke with the glowing end. "How would things turn out for me if they find out that, aside from harboring the Magus Killer, apparently uncontained magic is running rampant..."_

"_We aren't dealing with a magus here." Kiritsugu spoke, coughing as the smoke dwarreled into his face. "Trust me when I say that today was more of the exception of recent events. The cause of these irregularities is being sealed as we speak, but I need help doing damage control if things do go south..."_

"_Damage control? " The brunette gazed at the man as her voice showed a hint of sarcasm. "Emiya Kiritsugu. I'm the second born of a small family of magi. I have no crest, can barely perform basic thaumaturgy and the only reason I can supervise these lands and get paid for it is because my grandmother was a local and because my elder brother refused to leave England to supervise these worthless grounds. If I was a decent magus who could enforce such damage control I would have killed you the moment you entered this city."_

_The woman paused, once more indulging herself in her smoking habit. It took the edge of the woman as a sad smile slipped onto her face. "...you are a horrible person, showing up with such a sad-looking child. What was I supposed to do with that?"_

"_I was just looking for a house." The magus killer shrugged. "I only realised that my real estate agent was the second owner when we entered the room."_

"_You really are unbelievable. How did you survive so long if you didn't pick up something like that?"_

"_I just lost my touch these last few years."_

"_Heh, sounding like an old man at your age."_

_Neither of them spoke as the woman raised two fingers at the bar. Moments later he came to deliver her order, the bartender returned with two glasses. The woman raised her glass to her mouth, a motion Kiritsugu copied in response._

"_I can handle the crowd control for now, " She spoke as she placed her glass back on the table. " but if someone's behind all of this, they will have to pay. If this gets out, the association will be asking for someone's head. If that happens I'm going to offer them your's. If you disagree with that then you better finish this mess quickly and efficiently."_

"_Spoken like a true magus, that makes things clear." Kiritsugu spoke, seemingly unaffected by the blatant ultimatum threat the woman had made to him. " Still, you're too kind."_

"_And why's that?" The woman glared at the man._

"_You'd give them my head without a second thought," Kiritsugu pointed out, "but you didn't even threaten me with Shirou's safety at all."_

_Kiritsugu remained seated as the brunette walked out of the pub, the barrier fading away as the last cigarette in the ashtray dimmed before being extinguished. He drank the remaining content of his own drink back in one shot before leaving the glass on the table, the man leaving the pub as he headed home._

_With 16 Jewel Seeds still missing it seemed that there was enough work to do._

* * *

"It's okay Nanoha." Kiritsugu nodded to the apologising girl, who stopped talking as the resistance she had expected failed to present itself. "You and Shirou can join Suzuka and Alisa tomorrow. I want you to take Yuuno along."

"Really?" Shirou looked up in surprise. "Why?"

After Suzuka had invited them for a 'tea party' Shirou had been mulling on how to politely reject the girl's offer. After all, a day spent with their friends meant a day not spent searching the city grounds for more jewel seeds. Kiritsugu had been serious about collecting them as fast as possible, so why the sudden break?

"If I recall the Tsukimura family owns a rather large plot of land in town, which is fenced off and properly guarded as well." Kiritsugu answered Shirou's question before the boy could even voice it. "Shirou, while Nanoha entertains her friends you'll go off and look for Yuuno after he's 'escaped' from Nanoha's care." Kiritsugu nodded at Yuuno, the blond boy looking back him with a confused look. "It just can't be helped-" Kiritsugu smiled. "-that Shirou's new pet keeps running off whenever he sees something interesting. He's a rather stubborn ferret like that."

"So while Nanoha and Shirou are just visiting I can go and search the grounds for Jewel Seeds." Yuuno added as he realised where the man was going. "That way Nanoha and Shirou don't have to sneak in uninvited just to search the grounds!"

"It's fortunate that you managed to get yourself invited in such a short notice." Kiritsugu noted. "I don't like the idea of you children jumping over walls."

"I don't have to jump!" Nanoha pointed out with a happy grin. "I can fly now!"

"...Excuse me?" Kiritsugu blinked as Nanoha grinned.

"I've been working on the basics of the Flier Fin spell during Raising Heart's simulations but I should be able to fly around for real!"

"Also," Yuuno added,"I think I have recovered to the point that I'm capable of casting both barriers and short-range teleportation spells. With those I can set up a field to keep out regular humans and to contain the damage a jewel seed can cause."

"That's... actually very useful." Kiritsugu smiled. "This way we should be capable of acting more effectively without increasing the risk of being noticed. Yuuno, I'd like you to give me some specifics on your abilities. What is your range of transportation, and what's the size of the area you can close off with your barriers?"

Shirou watched as Nanoha started to pout, the girl deflating as her previous revelation was completely dismissed by Kiritsugu as he questioning an eager Yuuno. Shirou tried not to pout as the two discussed the limits of Yuuno's newly revealed abilities and the possible implementations alongside Nanoha's recent achievements…

Yuuno and Nanoha were really talented, so it wasn't a surprise that they had all sorts of skills that he didn't have. That didn't matter, they had a job to do, no matter how insignificant his role was becoming, Emiya Shirou would do it and feel satisfied.

There was really no reason for him to feel jealous.

* * *

"He ran away! Come back! Yuuno!"

The plan had gone off without a hitch, Alisa's cry echoing through the garden as Yuuno disappeared into one of the bushes.

"I'm really sorry Suzuka, Alisa. Yuuno is a bit of a stubborn ferret and he keeps doing that." Shirou apologised, gently removing the kittens that had been comfortably lazing around in his lap.

The huge amount of feline cuteness that had been dumped on both him and Nanoha was the result of of the cat-sanctuary that Suzuka had created at her home. Although Both Suzuka and Alisa had been rather happy to see the cute ferret, the cats had seen him less as a guest and more as entertainment.

Yuuno had thus decided to bail out a bit earlier than planned. Shirou couldn't really blame him.

"He might get lost in here." Alisa suddenly realised. "We should all go search for him!"

Shirou watched as Alisa prepared to detach herself from her chair, a feat made significantly more difficult due to the presence of over a dozen kittens making their napping spot on her lap. Alisa was stopped with the application of a gentle hand on her shoulder, as Nanoha softly pushed her back in her seat.

"I think we can let Shirou take care of it alone. If we all go look for Yuuno he'll probably get scared even further. The poor thing probably ran away because so many people were playing with him."

"Also, I think the cats liked him a bit too much." Shirou noted. "I'll bring Yuuno back once he's calmed down a bit." Shirou added as he looked at Alisa's dejected face. "I'm sure he'll be calm enough for some petting before we leave. I'll just… "

'_Shirou, are you still with the others?' _Yuuno's asked. _'I'm at the end of the clearing, I'll start with the northern part of the gardens here.'_

"Anyway," Shirou spoke up, trying the cover up the sudden interlude that had fallen when he had stopped talking. "I better go look for him. If it takes too long just mail me on my phone. If something has happened I'll call one of you."

"Just get Yuuno back safely," Alisa spoke. "...and he's gone."

"Shirou's fast, isn't he..." Suzuka noted.

* * *

"_Can you hear me Yuuno?" _Shirou called out to his friend as he slowly treaded towards, the blue gem resting on a spot of tall grass._ "I think I found one here, and it looks inactive.."_

The boy looked at the object with baited breath. Unlike Nanoha and Yuuno Shirou possessed no method to safely pick up a Jewel Seed. He also was sure that he'd do a bad job on keeping it secure if it did go active. Just coming into contact with something would turn this whole situation into one big...

"Meow?"

...cat?

Shirou blinked, before panic filled his expression as he watched the cat run towards the Jewel Seed.

"Oh no you don't! Shoo! Shooo!"

The boy ran, placed himself between the jewel seed and the grey kitten that had most likely followed him when he had left the table. The small feline paused in the face of the obstacle that was shooing at him. As Shirou stepped forward, the kitten decided that the shiny might not be worth the trouble after all, disappearing in a nearby bush as Shirou shoo'd him out of the clearing.

As the cat sped off, Shirou felt a small amount of satisfaction at a job well done, until he realised he had done nothing more than bully a kitten.

That revelation dampened his mood rather considerably. Still, he sure didn't want to know what would have happened if the kitten had actually come into contact with the Jewel Seed.

"_Shirou, is everything alright?" _Yuuno asked, Shirou only now realising that he had been ignoring the boy._ "I've called for Nanoha and pointed her towards you. We'll be there in a few minutes so make sure nothing touches the Jewel Seed until we get there!"_

"_Don't worry," _Shirou reassured his friend. _"Everything's clear here. Just get over here before-"_

"Don't move." A soft voice spoke up.

* * *

Yuuno blinked as Shirou's confident voice suddenly went quiet. For a moment the boy wondered if the communication spell had broken down until…

"_... hurry." _

Shirou's silent call sent shivers down Yuuno's spine.

* * *

Shirou spun around as he searched around for the source of the mysterious voice. Eventually he looked up, taking a step back as he took in the sight of the girl standing on one of the tree's thicker branches.

She was clearly a foreigner, long blonde hair and fair pale skin giving the girl an exotic, if not otherworldly look in the young boy's eyes. The girl was clad completely in black, blending with the shadows of the foliage and making her eyes stand out even more. In her hand rested a black staff, topped with a construct resembling the blade of an axe.

It was her eyes that drew Shirou's attention. Nanoha would probably have said that the girl's eyes were sad, and many would probably agree with her. They were eyes that did not fit on a girl her age…

To Shirou, those eyes were all too familiar. He had seen those eyes many times, back in the hospital. He had first seen them when he had been allowed to use a mirror, finally able to see his own reflection. Underneath the sadness, underneath the coldness of her gaze there was the look of a child who had accepted fate, simply accepting the world as it was…

...like he had as he walked trough the fire, burning away his very self.

"This must be somewhat confusing," The girl spoke up, gently floating down from the tree, landing right in front of him, "but please understand that you should step away from that artefact. Leave this place and forget about all of this."

There was but one reply that Shirou could give her.

"...Trace on."

No matter what, Shirou would protect the Jewel Seed. A hammer striking at the back of his head as his body tightened, prana flooding his body as his od was pulled through his circuits. Shirou bit down on his lip as he felt just how strongly his circuits reacted, power far beyond anything he had previously produced with his self-made circuit fueled his body.

This was how it felt to use magic. The pain was still there, a reminder of the wrongness of his abilities, but for the first time Shirou felt that his magic was literally but a thought away.

The girl was standing right in front of him. Even if he couldn't touch her weapon directly it was still close enough for him to read...

"Trace?" The girl repeated the foreign word, confusion in her tone. She had grown tense as well, unable to make out just what the boy was doing. Shirou ignored the girl as the boy focused his mind on the weapon in her hands. The blueprint of the device started to form, the image heavily fragmented as his mind tried to fill in the blanks it didn't comprehend.

From what the boy had seen the object was similar to Raising Heart, the axe in front of him only a part of the whole construct. The rest was folded away in places he couldn't read...

"Bardiche..."

"[Yes sir.]"

It seemed that the girl's patience had run out. The blond raised her device in front of her, her eyes narrowed in a mix of confusion and distrust. Nether boy or girl moved, both staring the other down as each weighed their options.

The sound of a rustling bush ended the stalemate. Both children jerked their heads to face the sound. Shirou cursed as he spotted a flash of grey jumping out of the greenery. Without thinking the boy rushed forward, ignoring the cry of surprise as he roughly pushed the girl aside before making a dive towards the Jewel Seed. The boy tumbled over the ground until he slammed into the trunk of a tree looming over the Jewel Seed, bringing the boy to a painful halt..

Shirou tried to sit up, whimpering as his back protested against the abuse it was suffering, again, before the golden colored blade of a black scythe was pressed against his neck.

"I told you not to move..." The girl spoke coldly, glaring angry at the boy. "Get up. Stand on your feet, slowly and..."

"..meow?"

The girl's threatening speech dwindled to nothing as the girl turned towards the source of the pitiful whine escaping from between Shirou's arms. The gray kitten, which the boy had just captured with his tackle, was already trying to worm itself out of Shirou's grasp, desperate to resume its quest for the shiny object that had caught its attention.

The cat let out another pitiful wail and Shirou watched as the girl's cold expression twitched as she tried to maintain her serious expression.

At that moment an idea came to Emiya Shirou. It was both unchivalrous and just plain wrong…but it would probably work. The boy knew that Nanoha, or any of his other female friends could never find out about this, in order to preserve his friendship with them…

"Sorry…" The boy murmured.

"What?"

"Catch!"

Fate Testarossa let out a cry of surprise as she found herself with a face filled with kitten, the animal panicking as it clucked onto the blonde's face with all it's might. Shirou scrambled to his feet, grabbed the jewel seed, praying that it would remain dormant, before he made his escape. His best chance was to run towards the house. He'd meet Yuuno and Nanoha halfway where they could seal the Jewel Seed before it activated.

"Bardiche, mode change."

The sound of countless metal parts rearranging themselves reached Shirou's ears, reminding him of the times he had seen Raising Heart switch between forms. As he looked over his shoulder he noted that the scythe with the imposing blade had disappeared. Instead the girl was pointing the less imposing axe towards him...

"[Lightning Bullet"]

Shirou's mind went blank the moment the bolt of lightning buried itself into his back. The boy tumbled to the ground, doubling over and dropping the jewel seed as his body seized up involuntarily.

Shirou swore he heard Nanoha yell at him even as he found his consciousness slip away.

* * *

"Another mage. Another person searching for the Lost Logia." The girl's voice was so sharp it almost made Nanoha take a step backwards in response. The girl shook her head and strengthened her resolve as she moved in front of the unconscious Shirou.

She had seen the girl's last move, the flash of lightning that crossed the distance between herself and Shirou in but a blink before hitting her defenseless friend. She hadn't hesitated, striking him in the back without mercy.

"Nanoha... there's no doubt about it now, Yuuno spoke. "This girl, her magic, she's definitely a mage from my world. Even more, this girl knows the true identity of the Jewel Seeds. She might even be responsible for the incident with the transport vessel that crashed them here in the first place!"

"...Is that true?" Nanoha spoke, looking at the other girl.

"At this point nothing like that matters." The blond girl ignored the boy's accusation, instead choosing to focus on the staff in Nanoha's hands. "How strange you hold an Intelligent Device just like my Bardiche. But you're clearly from this world..."

"Nanoha!" Yuuno spoke up as he stretched his arms, barriers of green light appearing at his whim. "For now I'll hold her off. Go and seal the Jewel Seed..."

"I'm terribly sorry, but I can't let you do that. The blond girl moved, cutting Yuuno off mid-sentence as she rushed past him. "I will be the one to claim it." The axe once more shifted into a scythe, the blade of the device gleaming ominously before both weapon and master disappeared in a flash.

"Nanoha!" Yuuno turned towards Nanoha as he shouted her name, eyes widening in fear as he noticed that the blond had had already reappeared behind Nanoha.

Nanoha jumped backwards as the blond made a sweep at her with her scythe, Flier Fins erupting from the white-clad girl as she took for the sky. Moments later did she realise her mistake as the blonde aimed her device towards the Jewel Seed, next to her unconscious friend.

"Shirou!"

Nanoha sped back towards the ground, the panic making her drop all caution to the wind. Almost instantly a green barrier erupted around the boy, Yuuno's arm outstretched towards his friend, but the mysterious mage was faster. The blonde shifted next to the boy, moving into the barrier before it could completely shield him from her reach. She struck the ground with her weapon, whipping up a cloud of dust that removed both her and Shirou from sight.

"Nanoha, wait!"

Yuuno tried to warn Nanoha as the girl flew directly into the dust cloud. "It's a..."

Lightning erupted out of the cloud, striking the unsuspecting Nanoha as she was launched backwards. Yuuno set up another set of barriers in order to catch her. Yuuno clenched his teeth as his linker core burned, his recovering powers being pushed too far too fast. Magic that he could have kept up indefinitely at full strength was now pushing him to his limits.

He couldn't fight the girl. Just keeping up the barrier and the shields protecting Shirou and Nanoha was taking everything he had.

A sudden gust of wind dispersed the dust cloud, revealing both Shirou and the enemy mage.

["Jewel seed 14... Sealed"]

"Thank you, Bardiche."

Yuuno could only watch as the blond mage carefully placed the boy on the ground before moving into the sky. Moments later all traces of the girl vanished as she teleported away.

"W-where did she go?" Nanoha moaned as she pulled herself up using her staff, her eyes searching for the blond mage.

"She's gone, "Yuuno answered, "and she took the Jewel Seed. Even though Shirou was able to find one..."

"Shirou!"

Nanoha ran towards her fallen friend who was still unconscious on the ground, the girl's cries becoming more desperate as the redhead failed to respond to her pleas.

* * *

_This is the tale of how the bodyguard Fuwa Shirou first met the Magus Killer, the assassin named Emiya Kiritsugu._

_As a bodyguard, it had been Shirou's job to protect a certain woman. When asked, all she could tell him was that a monster of a man, __a murderer that had killed for the sake of his research in the art of the moonlit world, wished for her to die to further his experiments. Her explanation, along with her payment, had been enough reason for him and his companions to protect her. The samurai of the Fuwa clan were amongst the strongest swordsmen in Japan, their secret techniques an effective counter against the mystics that magi employed in battle. If the heretic magus was brave enough to attempt to take them down head on then Shirou and his companions would be enough to finish the job. It wouldn't be the first time they faced a magus and Fuwa Shirou certainly wasn't planning on on making this case the last._

_But in the end they failed._

_Their intel had been far from complete, having missed the fact that a third party would appear on the scene. They had been prepared to fight a magus of the traditional kind, leaving themselves open for an even more despicable opponent: one who used subterfuge to guide them into a false sense of security before taking them out with a lethal combination of magecraft and modern weaponry._

_Over half of his comrades were dead. A wounded Shirou could only watch as a man barely out of adolescence collected his prize: the trembling woman crying in the corner of the room. There was no gloating nor false compliments. The man who had bested him only looked at him with empty eyes before taking the woman, leaving the injured bodyguard behind without a second later did Fuwa Shirou learn that Emiya Kiritsugu, the man who had bested him, used the innocent girl to set up a trap to catch the man hunting her by setting up an exchange. Emiya Kiritsugu killed both the prey and the bait, collapsing the building where the so called 'exchange' was going to take place._

_For the sake of killing, that man had simply prepared appropriate bait. He discarded her life without a second thought. The magus killer sacrificed an innocent girl to kill a man responsible for countless he had done so without showing any emotions, sporing those empty eyes of his._

_Fuwa Shirou would never forget that face, the face of the cold assassin that used innocent people like pawns. The next time they met, the samurai vowed, his sword would certainly pierce that monstrous man's heart without hesitation._

_But then…_

_Years had passed. Fuwa Shirou had become Takamachi Shirou after another attempt on his life forced him to quit his job as a bodyguard. The former bodyguard now ran a cafe, living a simple life in the seaside town of Uminari. Then, one day, his youngest daughter returned home with a small boy in tow._

_That boy's name was Shirou, Emiya Shirou, and he was to be Nanoha's friend. Thus his little girl had decided._

_Takamachi Shirou wondered what strange fate had led a child sharing his name to his doorstep, or why he proudly bore the name of the assassin he had once faced in battle. The swordsman even wondered if fate had seemed it fitting for him to make due on his vow when Momoko told him that the boy's father would soon arrive to pick him up._

_But when the redhead's stumbling father appeared at the entrance of his store, Takamachi Shirou realized that he had already missed his man standing in front of him had already been killed. There was no reason for his sword to stab the heart of a man with those eyes. The assassin from that day already withered away, leaving behind this pale imitation of a man._

_And so, Takamachi Shirou had simply smiled before shaking the hand of the walking corpse, one father to another._

* * *

Two men sat on the porch of the Emiya residence, basking in the light of the setting sun as they refrained from facing each other. One was dressed in a simple shirt and jeans, sporting a youthful look that denied the fact that he was already 37 years old. The second man was dressed more formally, sporting a black long jacket and matching pants. He looked rather unkempt, the result of a lack of sleep or from suffering under far too much stress.

As a result Emiya Kiritsugu, even though only 32 years old, seemed far older than the man sitting next to him.

"So," Kiritsugu spoke up, carefully breaching the subject left unspoken between the two men, "what did Nanoha tell you about what happened?"

Takamachi Shirou's eyes narrowed as he carefully ran the question through his mind. The other man hadn't bothered to ask if he knew what had happened, instead asking what Nanoha had told him. Emiya Kiritsugu wasn't even trying to hide that something uncommon had happened, nor that Nanoha was involved.

Worst of all, Nanoha had not trusted him enough to tell him this herself and the man knew this.

"...Shirou-kun got lost, tripped and passed out." Takamachi Shirou answered. "Apparently he was still a bit under the weather so when Nanoha found him she panicked and Tsukimura Shinobu had her staff bring him to the guest room to rest. Eventually he woke up again and Kyouya and Nanoha brought him home..."

"I see." Kiritsugu answered. When an explanation remained unspoken Takamachi Shirou turned to face the man

"...Emiya Kiritsugu, I'll be honest with you," Nanoha's father calmly spoke. "I don't like this … I don't like this at all. When I asked Nanoha if Shirou had gotten himself into trouble again she fervently denied it. Nanoha doesn't lie, not as easily as that, so that means that she doesn't believe that it's Shirou, or you that are the cause of these… incidents. I feel like it's Nanoha that has somehow gotten herself into trouble. Furthermore I know for a fact that Shirou didn't just faint like that, and if this happened to him because he was trying to help Nanoha out then this makes me worry even more. Ever since Nanoha snuck out of the house a few weeks ago she's has been acting off. What bothered me even more is that when you returned things started to escalate. Shirou suddenly got sick, something strange happened downtown and Nanoha has been running herself ragged. Nanoha got herself involved into something dangerous… and she's chosen you of all people to take as her confidant."

"Even if this is true…" Kiritsugu eventually replied. "What will you do about it?"

"Just be honest with me here magus killer. What kind of business has gotten my daughter so involved that she can't even tell her own parents? "

"The current.. which both Nanoha and Shirou decided to stick their heads into, is... completely out of our worlds." Kiritsugu spoke. " I can't tell you more then that, just that it isn't the association or any other organisation that either of us has to worry about. For now I have been able lend some guidance but this is a burden that neither of us can truly take from her shoulders."

"What makes you say that?"

".. well, Even if I told you, you'd call me crazy. Just trust me that neither swordsmanship or thaumaturgy alone can resolve this incident. Nanoha's abilities are vital right now. But we can support her, and thats what we'll do for now."

"... Momoko won't like it. How am I supposed to explain to her that her daugher will keep on getting home late every day?"

"I fear I'm not really good at that kind of talk. Either way I'll be a bit more busy in the coming days."

"...And why is that?"

"We seem to have an uninvited guest in town. It would only be proper to prepare for the welcoming party."

Takamachi Shirou gritted his teeth at the sight of the man sitting next to him, his years of experience as a bodyguard reminding him that the face the man had donned was the face of an assassin that should have died long ago.

"... Is it necessary?" Takamachi Shirou couldn't help but ask.

"I decided," Kiritsugu answered, " that after finding Shirou... after failing to return to her, I wouldn't lose anyone else. That's why I'll do whatever is necessary."

It was almost ironic to see the man once known as a ruthless killing machine, vow that he'd protect everyone.

* * *

"Kiritsugu-san isn't coming along with us!?"

Yuuno looked up as Nanoha's voice echoed down the hallway where Shirou was now holding the phone away from his ear.

"You don't have to yell…"

"But! It's so rare for mom and dad to leave the store to the co-workers and to go on a trip like this, who knows when we'll go again! Besides Kiritsugu could really use a dip in a hot spring. It would be good for his aching bones"

"Hey, my dad is younger than yours, don't start talking about old bones like he's an old man. Anyway, he said he's waiting for a delivery so he won't leave the house. It's some stuff that our old neighbours in Fuyuki have kept in storage for him but he won't tell me anything about it."

"Thats to bad." Nanoha spoke, the girl sounding a bit dejected. "At least Yuuno is coming along, right? Alisa has been bugging me lately just to make sure we remember to take him along."

"Well," Shirou paused as he took a look at the other boy, Yuuno shaking his head in adamant refusal. "... Pets are allowed right?"

Shirou almost felt guilty as Yuuno glared at him.

"Yes!" Nanoha spoke up, back to her usual chipperness as Shirou could almost hear her nod through the phone. "As long as we look after him while he's in his ferret form it shouldn't be a problem."

"That's fine. Also..."

Shirou hesitated, the boy scratching his cheek. What he was about to ask was probably going to be quite a demand on the girl. Even so, he pushed onwards.

"Yuuno asked if we can borrow Raising Heart from you for the next few days. He'll return it in an emergency but right now there's something we want to try."

"Eeeh! Thats..."

Nanoha's pitiful cry didn't help to ease Shirou's consciousness about his request. HE knew that Nanoha had taken quite a liking to her newly found teacher and partner, unwilling to part with Raising Heart whenever she left her bedroom. She was also adamant that both he and Yuuno addressed the device as 'she'.

"... do I have to?" Nanoha eventually spoke up.

"Please. It's only for a little while." Shirou promised. " So don't be so sad Nanoha. You'll have her back in no time."

"Okay." The girl agreed dejectedly. "I'll see the two of you tomorrow. Say hi to Yuuno for me."

"I'll do that." Shirou answered, placing the phone down as he turned to face Yuuno. "Looks like everything's planned out. It's a good thing you can come along too this time."

"...as a ferret." the blonde pointed out." A 'cute cuddly animal' if Alisa is to be believed. She still wants to have me as a pet..."

"Don't worry!" Shirou smiled at his friend. "Nanoha and me will keep you safe. And in the worst case you can always take cover with Miyuki."

"She'd just take me into the bath again! Anyway, we have other things to worry about. At least now we'll be able to use Raising Heart's simulator to see if we can actually pull our little tactics off. I'll be honest, the idea is sound but I'm still unsure if we can pull off the timing needed..."

"We will make it work."

Shirou spoke without hesitation, clenching his fists as hands. "Next time things will be different. I'm not going to make Nanoha worry about me like this anymore."

Yuuno simply nodded.

* * *

"...Yuuno-chan!" Alisa's outcry drew a small twitch from Shirou's prone form, the boy seemly letting everything slide off him as he paid no attention to the madness taking place next to him. "Stop moving and let me pick you up!"

The group of spa visitors had chosen to travel with two cars, one driven by Takamachi Shirou and the other by Noel, the head maid of the Tsukimura household who was accompanying the younger mistress of the house. Emiya Shirou had decided to travel with his namesake, which placed him between a slightly dejected Nanoha, sans red ruby adorning her neck, and a rather active Alisa. The latter had been relentless in her pursuit in getting Yuuno to sit on her lap, the ferret evading all of her grapples and assaults.

Shirou remained unresponsive even as Yuuno climbed around his shoulders before taking refuge on top of the redhead in a desperate attempt to stay out of Alisa's clutches.

'_Yuuno-kun, why are you being so stubborn?'_ Nanoha asked, sending the changeling a speechless question as she watched the spectacle unfold. _'Alisa won't hurt you...'_

'_...Nanoha. I don't mind using this form to recover or to keep a low profile but...'_

".. I even got this cute bow for you to put on!" Alisa interrupted both their thoughts as the girl pulled out the dreaded items.

'_... I still have some pride left.'_

"Shirou, can't you get Yuuno to sit down?" Alisa finally changed tactics, turning to Yuuno's 'owner' in an attempt to achieve results. Unfortunately the boy was still unresponsive..

"Can you children in the back quiet down a bit?" Takamachi Shirou suddenly spoke up. " I can't drive safely like this."

"Do be careful dear." Momoko added as she smiled at her husband before turning her attention to the younger Shirou. "Shirou-kun, can you get Yuuno to calm down a bit? It's a bit dangerous for him to sit on top of your head like that."

After a few moments Shirou opened his eyes before grabbing the ferret with both hands, placing the animal in Nanoha' lap. Shirou remained silent, acting oblivious to the fuming Alisa even as the car moved on.

'_[Simulation #5, timing of movement and barrier casting.]'_

The red gem, attached to the cord hanging around Shirou's neck underneath his T-shirt lit up, lines of text, moving across the surface before it returned to normal.

Inside the mindscape created by the device, Emiya Shirou moved once more, now accompanied by a blond boy as the ferret in Nanoha's lap curled up.

* * *

Shirou slowly made his way over the wooden floor of the outdoor spa, tightening the belt of the dark-blue yukata given to him as he moved. His hair was still damp from the bath he had taken earlier while Yuuno was resting in their room.

The ferret having been exhausted, it had been inevitable that Alisa and Suzuka would finally have their ferret-playing-time and it had taken a toll on the boy. The older males, Nanoha's brother and Father were still soaking in the hot spring. Shirou was still hearing the echoes of laughter coming from the girl's side, which meant that he probably was the only one outside the baths at the moment, excluding any other guests...

"Oh my, if it isn't the cute little boy that got in my master's way the other day..."

Shirou looked up in surprise, taking in the sight of an unfamiliar woman walking towards him. The woman was tall, her long unkempt red hair spilling down her neck as who wore one of the inn's yukata. Even so there was something _off_ about the woman.

She had probably noticed his stare as she shot him a wolfish grin. "Oh, I must say that you kinda look adorable with that confused look." The woman continued, walking toward him. "You really are like a sad, confused puppy..."

Before Shirou could even speak up his remarks was pushed aside, the strange woman pulled him against her chest without any hesitation as she burying his face in her cleavage.

The feelings of surprise and embarrassment vanished rather quickly as Shirou felt the unusually long nails pressing against his neck. A single finger moved, the nail digging uncomfortably into his flesh with but the slightest pressure.

The message was clear, with but a single motion she could tear into his flesh... if she wished for it.

"My master is far too kind." The woman spoke up as she released the boy. "Last time you managed to make things difficult for her because she feared for your safety. Next time I'll properly 'dispose' of such distractions before you get the chance to hurt her."

"...You.."

"I'll remember your scent from now on. Don't get yourself into trouble now boy."

* * *

It was only a few hours later that Yuuno called out to him after Nanoha had sensed a Jewel Seed nearby. Once more Shirou had rushed to their side, returning Raising Heart to Nanoha as the girl slipped the necklace back on her neck.

Shirou was prepared to face the blond girl from before, but to his surprise the blond wasn't alone this time. Sitting on the rail of the bridge crossing the small water covering the Jewel Seed was the woman he had met just hours ago.

"You really don't listen to others do you?" the woman snarled. "I told you what would happen if we'd run into each other again, didn't I little boy? Do you really want to get bitten and beaten by me?"

"Not really, no" Shirou answered, causing the woman to let out another moan of frustration.

"Come on! And why are there three brats now. Did the ferret decide to turn into a human or something?"

"Tell me! What are you people doing with the Jewel Seeds!" Yuuno ignored the woman's complaints while addressing the blond standing behind her.

"There's no reason for her to tell that to you." Arf jumped between the blond and Yuuno before stretching her limbs. " Don't worry about that, you have bigger problems to deal with right now..."

The howl that followed had made Shirou tremble as the woman's form shifted until she had been replaced with a large wolf-like beast. The animal reached his shoulders while standing on all four legs, each sporting a set of intimidating claws, looking sharp enough to slice him to bits. Shirou couldn't help but remember the sensation of her nails digging into his neck the last time they had spoken.

"She's a familiar. A creature created by magic, dependent on her master for the power to exist." Yuuno quickly explained. "She's much more than a regular magical beast, don't underestimate her!"

"That's right! In trade for my master's power I'll protect her with my life!" The beast roared while crouching, somehow reminding Shirou of a cat that was about to jump it's prey." Fate, you can go home ahead of me. I'll deal with these brats."

"..Don't be reckless." The blond softly spoke up, seemingly unwilling to leave her familiar behind.

"I see, "Shirou spoke up as gratitude filled his voice. "So you are her friend. That's great."

Both master and familiar shot a confused stare at the smiling boy standing in front of them.

"Miss Familiar, you said that you would defend your master with your life? Then, I'll have to respond to that dedication with my own resolve."

"...brat. Stop acting brave and know when to run." The beast looked at Shirou, clearly not impressed. "Are you really…"

Nanoha, I'll leave that girl to you. Yuuno, lets take care of this woman together while Nanoha's busy."

"... You don't really give me a choice here." Yuuno smiled. "Fine, I'll be your shield this time..."

"Thats a lot of big words for two little brats!" The beast howled, no longer willing to wait. Without any hesitation the beast launched herself forwards, barreling towards Shirou before she clashed against the green barrier that appeared. Immediately another set of spell circles appeared.

"Shirou," Yuuno yelled. "We're moving away from here!"

"F-forced teleportation!?" The beast stammered even as she tried to break free.

"I'm sorry," Yuuno smiled at the familiar. "But we won't be able to stick around here. Our battlefield will be somewhere else!"

Both the familiar and the two boys disappeared in a flash of green light, leaving the two female mages behind.

* * *

"_Neither of us can help Nanoha if she has to face that girl."_

_Shirou winced as Yuuno voiced the painful truth, the former lying in bed after the disastrous encounter with the golden-haired mage._

"_In your case it can't be helped." Yuuno continued. "You simply can't defend yourself against those kind of attacks. Even reinforcing your regular clothing won't protect you against her lightning element..."_

"_I can't even successfully reinforce my clothing all the time." Shirou sighed. "So far my only successes after I opened my circuits have been with projecting things like swords or reinforcing existing solid objects, like swords." _

_Yuuno nodded before picking up one of the Shinai Shirou had projected the day before, having stowed it underneath Shirou's bed. Shirou had given it to him after Yuuno had voiced his interest in his projections._

_Once again, all of his projections had long since faded, aside from the sword Shirou had made._

"_Remember your first fight, when you took on that jewel seed monster? You were using the original sword back then, right?. Back then your final attack managed to carve right through it's body."_

"_It did."_

"_Did you use reinforcement on that blade back then?"_

"_I did," Shirou answered. " It was before I knew how to turn on my circuits so I had little to nothing left… but it did work. I'm surprised you remembered that."_

"_That monster had a reasonable resistance to my magic." Yuuno pointed out. "Nanoha needed to hit it with a bombardment spell... but you cut through it with a wooden sword. It makes me wonder if it has something to do with the way your magic works. From what your father told me thaumaturgy works by distorting reality."_

"_Thats right, magic isn't normal." Shirou nodded. "That's why my projections will always disappear."_

" _If your magic distorts reality, which our magic is part of, that could distort our magic as well. If you locally alter space, disrupting the formulas embedded in a barrier spell, then the spell will come apart."_

"_...my reinforced sword wounded that blob because I made a sword that slices through magic? But it didn't work against the dog we fought after that. Are you sure…"_

_Not slicing, corroding." Yuuno pointed out. " Back then you were pushing the sword into the beast for several seconds, until it finally gave away, right? If you try to force something through a barrier the spell normally resolves the situation by countering it with a similar amount of force to remove the intrusion from the matrix."_

"_Sorry. I didn't get it."_

"_If you punch a shield, the shield pushes back your fist with the same force, stopping your punch.."_

"_Right. It's a shield."_

"_But, when your magecraft starts distorting reality on the border of the shield it can't do that, at least not completely. The calculations that maintain the shield won't work correctly if they are forced to work on a different set of laws They should become less and less accurate as time passes and your magic twists the matrix until the spell collapses.."_

"_... really?"_

"_Well, It's all speculation at this strengths lie in defensive magic and support-spells like teleportations and barriers. I'm not really talented in battle and I don't think I can actually hit another mage, especially if she's moving at high speeds like last time. But you know. If we manage to keep our opponent low to the ground and keep her from moving then you'd have a clear shot at wearing her down until her spells collapse on their own. It'll be tricky but…"_

"_Let's do it." _

* * *

"Yuuno, lets go! You got 10 seconds!"

"That's more than enough. Shield Labyrinth!"

"Trace on!"

The first thing Arf noticed after shaking of the teleportation daze was that the green-clad boy had cast over a dozen shield barriers into the sky, effectively cutting off any path into the sky and limiting her movement to a ground battle. The second thing was that the redheaded brat was rushing towards her...

"...Concept judged. Basic structure envisioned. Structure duplicated..."

… armed with nothing but his bare hands. Arf relaxed, before going on full alert as she noticed the strange glow surrounding his right hands.

"..Ending Resonance, All cut!"

Suddenly a sword appeared in his hand before the boy struck, the sword trusted towards her head. Arf growled the blade struck the orange-tinted barrier in front of her, shielding her from the pathetic attempt...

"W-what!"

...which was slowly making it's way through her barrier as she watched.

Arf jumped backwards just before the feeble barrier broke. She had known that it had been a shoddy construct but it should have been more than enough to hold back a simple blade. Her eyes widened in glee as she watched the blade break apart, dissolving into splinters as the boy discarded the remnant of the shinai.

"Ha!" Arf taunted as her confidence rose back to normal. "What kind of weapon breaks after the first..."

The beast's taunt was interrupted as her charge towards the boy was suddenly interrupted, the beast suddenly crashing into another green barrier. it immediately collapsed before another set appeared behind her, blocking her path of escape while leaving her open for the boy who was once again charging at her.

"Freeze out. Projection load!"

The same blade once more appeared in the boy's hand, this time even faster than before. Arf jumped forwards, rather meeting the boy head-on then standing around as the other boy trapped her with even more barriers…

… but once more she had been one step behind. Just as her claw came into range of the boy a chain pinned it down, forcing her to a stop. By the time she broke free the boy had already turned to the side, evading her halted strike while swinging his blade towards her. She reverted back to her human form in order to catch the blade with her right hand.

Even though the boy had speed he was still only around her master's age. There was no way his puny arms possessed that much strength behind them.

But the moment she caught the blade Arf found her arm buckling under the unexpected force behind the strike.

"The hell!"

This was definitely not a strength a child his age should be able to muster. What kind of magic was the boy using to increase the weight of his strike like that!? The muscles in her arm cried out until the pressure suddenly faded, the blade which she had caught disintegrating like the previous blade had.

"What's with that sword of yours!" Arf snapped as she rushed after the boy, her frustrations fueling her speed. In the moment she had held onto the disintegrating weapon the boy had once more created a distance between them, but his speed was far slower than her's.

Moments later Arf cried out once more, her lunge towards the boy triggered yet another trap. Realising that the other mage had probably littered the path between herself and the redhead with traps she came to an halt, circling around the boy.

"Cowards!" She called out to the boy. "Stop hiding behind shields and traps and face me head-on!"

"Freeze out." The boy muttered, seemingly ignoring her taunt. "Projection load."

"Third set, barriers and traps ready!" Yuuno spoke up as yet another set of green spell circles lit up, basking the area in the light of his magic. The woman howled as she spotted the chains shooting towards her, a wave or orange flashes blasting them out of the air.

"...Stop playing around with me!" The woman roared as she dove towards the two boys.

* * *

Yuuno carefully watched the battle play out in front of him even as he continued to cast his barriers. Right now they needed to keep the familiar off balance, making sure that it couldn't keep on evading Shirou's.

It wasn't much of a plan, but it was the best they had come up with. For the past few days it had been the only thing he and Shirou had been working on, training to speed up their spells so they could wear down their opponents with sheer numbers, an assault using infinite blades.

To create a perfect blade, one that could withstand a real battle, Emiya Shirou needed far too long to project said weapon. It meant that he had to stay still while an opponent was nearby.

Rushing it would only degrade the quality, the faster Shirou worked, the worse the projection became.

But what if he only made a shoddy copy, one that would break after a single strike? A sword that would need only a second to reproduce? As long as a blade survived the first strike, before someone could return the attack, it would still be effective.

After all, he could simply create a new blade the moment after that.

With that in mind Shirou had spent hours on increasing his speed. He took the blueprint in his mind and started cutting, discarding everything until he could recreate a weapon that he could still call a blade whenever he wanted, in less than a few seconds.

"Freeze out. Projection load!"

"Like that will help you!"

As long as Shirou was capable of creating his first blade, he couldn't be disarmed even as it broke at every strike. As long as his 27 circuits continued to provide him with power, a blade would definitely appear in his empty hand the moment his previous blade shattered. Emiya Shirou couldn't create a blade that could defeat a mage like the blond girl. What he could do was wear down that mage with countless copies, each but a pale imitation of the original, mirages that hovered between existence and nonexistence.

The single blow each sword delivered was almost as heavy as a blow from the original sword. It forced his opponent to stand her ground, if not she did evade she would move right where Yuuno wanted her, traps and barriers waiting for her to force her back into Shirou's range.

"Freeze out. Projection load!"

"S-Shut up! You and your little toys! Traps and barriers and wooden stick won't keep me from beating the crap out of you... OW!""

And from the furious look of their opponent it looked like it was working perfectly.

By now Yuuno was confident that he could read Shirou's movements well enough to support him. Shirou trusted him completely with his life, knowing very well that one failed barrier could mean a life-threatening wound in combat without a barrier jacket of his own…

But Shirou had resolved himself to the point that he would risk his life, and that was why Yuuno had to meet his expectations. Because aside from them there was another person who was willing to bear any burden they placed on her, no matter how heavy.

That was why they wouldn't lose. For the sake of the girl who had decided that she would give everything she had... for the sake of that precious friend...

The two boys would face whatever enemy would stand in her way.

* * *

There was no way this woman was going to lose anytime soon. As Shirou's Od ran dangerously low the familiar was still up and running, even though she had been slowed down considerably.

She had taken a direct hit on several occasions, but the fact remained that they could not land a decisive blow. All they could so was stall, buying time for Nanoha to finish her own encounter.

Shirou had still hoped that Nanoha could talk the girl out of becoming their enemy. Still, the girl was after the Jewel Seeds for a reason, no matter how dangerous they were. Most likely the girl named Fate was just as determined as they were...

"Nanoha!"

Yuuno's sudden cry made both Shirou and the familiar halt in their assault, their attention drawn to the scene playing out above them.

Nanoha had lost. Fate had rested her scythe against the girl's neck, leaving the latter unable to escape. Raising Heart released a Jewel Seed, the deed signifying Nanoha's defeat.

"See, I told you it was useless." The familiar smiled as she used Yuuno's lapse of attention to move through the maze of barriers. By the time the boys caught up with her the familiar and her master had been reunited on the bridge once more. Nanoha landed next to the boy's, the girl visibly winded but unscathed.

"My name.. is Takamachi Nanoha." Nanoha calmly spoke. "These are my friends, Yuuno Scrya and Emiya Shirou. Won't you tell me your names?"

"Huh?" the familiar looked down at her. "Why should we tell you pipsqueaks our names?"

"Fate Testarossa."

"Fate!" The familiar yelped, looking at her master as if the girl had gone crazy.

"It's okay Arf." The blond nodded at her comrade before turning back to face Shirou and his friends. "You three should give up on the Jewel Seeds." the girl continued, her voice calm as if stating a fact. "Next time you might not be so lucky to escape this easily."

"That's.." Nanoha's voice trembled. "That's just..."

"I can't do that."

Shirou spoke without hesitation, his mind made up as he interrupted Nanoha without any warning. "Because of these Jewel Seeds, people are in danger every time one of them activates, and even if they are kept safe, they are still too dangerous. But most of all, Yuuno asked for my help. That's why I won't stop, no matter how dangerous this is."

"You have bad taste in making new friends boy." The woman named Arf sneered. "Do you always help strangers from other places when they come to you with their problems? What kind of gullible idiot are you?"

"If someone asks for my help I'll give it to them." Shirou stubbornly replied. " If someone needs to be saved then I'll save them. That goes for you as well. If you need my help, I'll definitely come to your aid."

"Seriously!? What kind of world do you think we are living in brat?" Arf sneered at the boy. "Saving us? Did you hit your head or something? We just beat you three completely!"

"I believe that you two aren't bad persons." Shirou spoke, undeterred by Arf's look of disbelief. "That's why, if you ask..."

"Be quiet."

Fate's voice was far colder than before as the girl glared at the boy Shirou, the empty look suddenly filled with a mixture of anger and disbelief. "Those are easy words to say." She spoke even as she turned away from the boy. "Collecting the Jewel Seeds is my mission, and I must do that myself. Don't involve yourself with them, You have no place there."

"You, do you think you are the hero of a story or something? " Arf spoke as she finished in a blur of light herself. "How foolish."

What remained were three children standing in the dark, each looking at the sky with different thoughts roaming in their minds.

"I.. want to talk to her again." Takamachi Nanoha spoke. "I want to ask why she looked so sad..."

Shirou simply nodded.


	4. Chapter 4

**IV: Our dreams and feelings cannot be conveyed?**

_Kiritsugu didn't speak as he drove the small van through the illuminated streets of Uminari, having taken over the steering wheel from the imposing man sitting next to him. Their destination was a small apartment in one of the lower levels of an apartment complex near downtown Uminari, rented under a false identity provided him by his old contact in Fuyuki. With Shirou out of town for at least two more days it would give him time to set up a base of operations._

_The items in the back of the truck were simply far too dangerous to keep at home. He didn't feel like showing this particular side of him to Shirou, let alone to the far more innocent Nanoha._

_Driving up the parking lot, he swiftly parked the car before he and his fellow traveler stepped out into the cold night, the latter scanning the perimeter before giving the ok sign. Under the cover of night the two men transported their cargo into the building._

_Thirty minutes later the van drove off again as the driver heading back for Fuyuki. Kiritsugu watched the car take off from behind the window on the fifth floor of the building, waiting until the van had turned the corner before closing the blinds. Behind him, stacked around an unmade bed was a collection of containers; all tightly sealed to ensure that their contents wouldn't be spotted by accident unless the correct key was inserted into the locking mechanism. But soon the containers started showing the spoils as Kiritsugu unlocked them, one after another..._

_Explosives, hand grenades, stun grenades, smoke grenades, C2 plastic explosives, trip wires, hidden fuses and even several radio transmitters. _

_Originally he had been planning on using the C2 to create a small bump into one of the larger leylines of Fuyuki, which would result in the destruction of the greater grail in the next large earthquake. However it seemed that the final act to seal that disastrous past would have to wait._

_He had overheard Yuuno explaining to Shirou and Nanoha that mass-based weaponry and explosive devices had been banned on most worlds over 50 years ago as their magic made such weapons obsolete. Kiritsugu was willing to believe Yuuno's assumption that regular weaponry would fail to penetrate a barrier jacket, even if the boy probably had no experience with that kind of weaponry aside from whatever he dug up on one of his digs. Even so, Kiritsugu was very aware of how effective 'obsolete' or 'unconventional' weaponry could be, especially when used against an opponent caught off guard._

_Assaulting the mages directly would probably be a waste of time, but targeting their base of operations would be an effective means to stop them. The girl and her familiar had most likely set up camp somewhere inside the city which meant that she had a trail. Humans ate and slept after all, and thus somewhere someone would have seen a blond haired foreigner or her redheaded familiar buying groceries or renting a room. The recording Raising Heart had made during Nanoha's last encounter had given him a detailed description of both females, leaving him with enough information to narrow down his search. _

_He doubted that the girl would manage to elude him for long._

_Kiritsugu clenched his teeth as he opened another case, spotting the two disassembled weapons. The larger one, the Steyr AUG assault rifle, was all too familiar to him. It had been Maiya's weapon of choice; the light assault rifle capable of fulfilling a variety of roles on the second gun was just as easy to recognise, the familiar shape of the Calico greeting him as he removed it from the case. _

_Placing the handgun aside he took the time to assemble the larger rifle. As he aimed through the window the man bit his lips in frustration, unable to stop the slight trembling of his arms. Back when his body had been in shape the eight kilos of the Walther had been nothing more than a minor inconvenience. But now the AUG, weighing less than four kilos, made his arms tremble like the legs of a newborn foal. Two years of the unrelenting whispers haunting his mind and the lull of peace had taken their toll on his physical body. _

_He turned towards the final container, placing the rifle onto the bed as he took in the sight of the rosewood. Kiritsugu slowly opened the lid, before tracing the distinctive barrel and the walnut grip of the gun with his eyes. It seemed that the handle of the gun had suffered greatly from both the heat and the ashes, the result of Kiritsugu discarding the weapon during his search for survivors. _

_It had taken quite some work for the Fujimura's to retrieve the weapon from the police after it had been found during their investigation of the fire. The gun had been heavily damaged in the aftermath but it would still function. Restoring the weapon had been a rather expensive undertaking. Raiga had assured him that the gun wouldn't backfire on him but it was obvious that the weapon had seen better days._

_Even worse was the fact that he now possessed only 14 origin bullets, having lost most of the remaining 29 in the chaos after Fuyuki and during the war. His mystic code was nearing depletion. Kiritsugu picked up a bullet, sliding it into the gun as he loaded the weapon..._

"_Over 10 seconds." he noted with a scowl as he removed the bullet. "Reloading the weapon and infusing the bullet will take far too long. It seems I'll only have a single shot."_

_A small part of him hoped that it might not get that far. There was a chance that Yuuno , Shirou and Nanoha could bring this event to a good end without someone having to spill their blood..._

_But he had stopped believing in such miracles almost two year ago._

* * *

It was morning at the Emiya residence. The silence was broken by the ringing of Shirou's alarm. Shutting the device off, the boy shook his head in a feeble attempt to get the drowsiness out of his system.

Normally he had no problem rising along with the sun, but lately his training with Yuuno had both children running simulations until deep into the night. After their last encounter, in which they had been unable to prevent Nanoha's defeat against the other magical girl, both boys had strengthened their resolve. Yuuno had decided that Nanoha had a greater need of Raising Heart's training programs so they crammed in one last training session themselves before the girl could be reunited with her comrade.

As a result Shirou had been awake most of the night as he and Yuuno went through simulation after simulation.

Shirou bit back another yawn as he carefully stepped around the futon he had pulled out for Yuuno. The blond boy was neatly sleeping under the covers. While he hadn't really voiced a preference, Shirou had noticed that Yuuno did prefer remaining in his human form. However, he spent most of his time transformed to regain as much strength as possible.

Shirou had to say that he was happy to have a guest over. It made the house livelier. He had someone to talk to that knew about magic, even though their styles were rather diverse. Kiritsugu had been more active lately too, the constant dialogue between the guest and the older magus sometimes lasting for hours as they debated the finer points and limitations of their craft. Often both, Yuuno and Kiritsugu simply didn't bother to keep the conversation at his level and it wasn't uncommon for Shirou to completely lose track of what they were talking about.

By the time Yuuno woke up and made his way downstairs, Shirou was almost finished with most of his morning routine. All that was left was to prepare breakfast and assemble lunchboxes for everyone.

"Is Kiritsugu going to join us for breakfast today?" Yuuno asked as he moved to help Shirou set the table for three people. "I haven't seen him leave his room this morning."

"Dad was out late the last few days." Shirou answered as he made his way back to the kitchen. "He'll probably sleep all morning again. I don't really mind, except that whenever he comes home late the kitchen is always a mess. What does he do with the place?"

"Making an early morning snack, I think?" Yuuno guessed. "Didn't your father teach you to cook?"

"It's more like I taught myself to cook because of my father's cooking." Shirou replied as he directed a melancholic look towards the ceiling, around where his father was sleeping on the floor above. "I love the old man... but his cooking nearly killed me more than once."

"Aren't you being a bit..."

"I don't make jokes about food."

"I...I see" Said Yuuno as he whimpered in the face of Shirou's unrelenting gaze.

"Hmm," Shirou frowned as he opened the fridge. "It seems that we are almost out of groceries though. We have enough for breakfast but I'll have to do some shopping this afternoon. You'll have to go with Nanoha on your own. I'll join you after I'm done."

"Sure." Yuuno noted as he watched Shirou sit down before both boys started to eat.

* * *

Shirou grabbed his bag as he walked towards the front door, slipping into his shoes and leaving his slippers at the door. As he opened the door Shirou turned around facing the hallway where Yuuno, back in his ferret form, stood as he watched him leave.

"I'm off to school." Shirou nodded. "Say hi to my old man for me when he wakes up."

"_Don't forget to return Raising Heart to Nanoha as soon as possible!" _Yuuno replied, the voice only heard by Shirou.

"_I won't."_

With that, Shirou walked through the door and closed it behind him. Soon the boy was running down the street as Uminari city woke up to greet the new day. The lively roads of Uminari buzzed with both adults and children, each making their way to either school or work. But Shirou barely paid attention to them as his thoughts drifted back to the the magical girl dressed in black. She had been distant, except at the end of their last meeting when, for a moment, she had shown her true self. Anger and disbelief were clearly seen in her eyes before she covered those emotions with that empty look.

Those empty eyes made him remember the days after the flames had burned everything away, leaving him without purpose or identity. But he didn't have anything left to hide behind those eyes back then. Unlike him, who had simply lost everything that made him human, that girl had chosen to bury herself in order to face Nanoha, Yuuno and himself...

...and it was horribly wrong. No matter the reason, that girl was trying to stop being human. Something was forcing that girl, who's anger and disbelief had betrayed her true self; to kill off her human side in order to obtain the Jewel Seeds.

But why? Why was the girl so desperate in her effort to obtain those artifacts? Were they the key to regain something precious or was she trying to fill a void that had yet to be filled? What drove a girl his age to do something so dangerous?

Shirou couldn't find the answers himself. All he knew was that there was something wrong with that girl. That was all he needed to know. After all, he had told her that if she asked, he would help her.

* * *

Nanoha was ignoring him.

No, it was more like the girl was ignoring everyone and everything around her. From what Shirou could tell she wasn't even using Raising Heart's simulator. She was just spacing out. He could guess what the girl was thinking about, seeing that the same subject was keeping him from paying attention to the teacher's lecture as well, but at this point Nanoha wasn't even trying to hide her lack of attention.

Shirou welcomed the bell, signaling that lunch break had begun. He made his way over to Nanoha's table. Hopefully he could get the girl to focus before...

"Give me a break already!"

...Alisa would blow a fuse.

Shirou sighed. For the last few days the spirited girl had made it rather clear that she had noticed that Nanoha had been acting differently. Both he and Nanoha had been acting rather distant and today had been the final straw. Alisa had probably been counting down the seconds until class ended so she could go grill Nanoha.

For the first time that morning Nanoha looked up. The girl was caught by surprise by the sight of Alisa looming over her with Suzuka hovering behind her, clearly hesitating over what to do.

"You've been staring out into space and zoning out since the other day, and even before that you've been acting strangely!"

"I-I'm sorry Alisa-chan."

"Don't apologize! If it's so important that you can't tell your own friends then don't look at me like that! We are your friends. Why can't you just tell us what is bothering you?"

"I can't. I really can't."

"Is it because you don't think you can trust us? Is it..."

"We get it Alisa." Shirou spoke, finally stepping in as he placed his hands onto their shoulders, Nanoha and Alisa looking up at him in surprise. "The truth is, Nanoha can't tell you because I asked her not to."

It wasn't a lie. Back when they had first met Yuuno, Shirou had told her to never tell anyone of magic. Therefore he wasn't lying... really.

"Then! What's so important that you can tell Nanoha but not me or Suzuka!" Alisa asked, redirecting her frustrations onto the boy. "You better have a good reason for making Nanoha keep this to herself!"

"It's... a family thing."

"Then why does Nanoha know?"

"It's a families thing! Or... I think it is..?" Shirou averted Alisa's gaze as he turned to face his other friend. Nanoha looked at him with a confused look as the hand on her shoulder strengthened its grip. " ...Anyway Nanoha, you shouldn't worry like this. You know you aren't alone in this, we are in this together aren't we?"

It was the three of them; Nanoha, Yuuno and himself that were supposed to carry that burden. Shirou should have known that Nanoha would've forgotten that but, seeing a faint smile creep on her face, it looked like Nanoha finally realised that she wasn't alone.

"Hmm, thats right. Thanks Shirou. I'm sorry Alisa, Suzuka. I've been acting a bit strangely, haven't I?"

"A bit?" Alisa sighed as the tension left her body. " You've been... Suzuka?"

All of them turned to their other friend who was starting to mutter under her breath.

"... important... can't tell anyone..." The quiet girl mumbled as her eyes shot from Shirou to Nanoha, a blush growing on her cheeks as she continued to count down something on her fingers. "...a family thing... in this together..."

"Hello? Suzuka-chan?"

"... in this together..."

"Tsukimura-san?"

"Oh my." The girl concluded as she suddenly started smiling at Shirou, who was feeling rather confused by the girl's behaviour. "It's something like that then? I never thought..."

"You lost me." Shirou confessed as the girl suddenly grasped Nanoha hands with her own. Nanoha let out a cute 'meep' as she was pulled towards the smiling girl.

"I understand Nanoha. Don't worry! Alisa and I won't ask anymore. We'll wait until you tell us yourself!" The girl promised with a bright smile. "Although, you and Shirou were spending a lot of time together so we should have noticed it before..."

"W-what?"

Shirou simply watched as a radiant Suzuka pulled a struggling Alisa out of the room as he and Nanoha were left behind, Suzuka smiling at them until she had left the classroom.

"I don't get it."

"Neither do I."

* * *

_Takamachi Nanoha still remembered the first time she met Emiya Smirou._

_The classroom had been abuzz with chatter as the children spread the news. By now everyone knew that a transfer student was going to join the class, even though it was in the middle of the school year. Some said it was because the child had been kicked from his old school, others because his parents had suddenly moved. A few remembered hearing that a nearby city had burnt down and soon the strangest stories roamed the classroom as the teacher remained absent._

_Takamachi Nanoha had simply sat down in her seat and waited. She hadn't really paid attention to the rumors, instead spending her time watching the closed door. Around her the whispers of children slipped into her ears, idle conversations about if it was a cute girl or a cool boy that would join them today._

_To her it didn't matter. Whoever stepped through that door would get a smile from her and a heartwarming 'welcome'. To Nanoha, a stranger was simply a friend she hadn't met._

_The teacher sported a large smile as she called the class to attention, telling them that another friend would be joining them from that day on. Nanoha sat straight as the teacher mentioned that the boy had spent a long time in the hospital before moving to Uminari. Of course the class would do everything to make him feel at home while he adjusted himself to his new life._

_As the classroom cried out in agreement the teacher called out towards the door. Nanoha watched as the door opened in a slow... and strangely hesitant manner. A red haired boy, dressed in their distinctive white uniform, quietly walked into the classroom. The sudden silence made the boy even more hesitant, his steps slow and insecure._

_The boy looked like he had no idea what he was doing here in a room filled with strangers._

_The teacher smiled encouragingly at the boy as she placed her hand on his shoulders, causing the boy to look up at her in confusion. "Go on," she spoke with a smile, "introduce yourself."_

_The boy nodded before turning forward to face the class. Nanoha's stare intensified as she looked at his eyes. Although she noted that they were a pretty golden color, there was something off about them. His eyes looked somewhat dull, as if he wasn't completely there._

_"My name is Emiya Shirou." He spoke as he bowed to the class. "I hope to get along with all of you. Please take care of me." _

_With that the class once more exploded in chatter._

_Nanoha watched as the boy's eyes widened in surprise, a spark of emotion returning into his eyes. But soon the boy looked away from the class, unable to handle the pressure. He turned towards the teacher and the spark vanished from his eyes once more._

_Nanoha barely paid attention to the teacher who pointed Shirou to a desk he could use, her eyes glued to the boy walking past her before sitting down two rows behind her. Soon the class returned to the usual routine, continuing the lesson from the day from before._

_Even so, Nanoha found herself sneaking peeks at the new boy sitting behind her._

* * *

_During his first week at the Uminari Elementary, the boy named Shirou had remained silent. Nanoha noted that, aside from answering questions or responding to others, Shirou didn't really seem bent on making friends at all. The boy often sat alone, refusing all of her invitations to join her or any of their classmates during lunch, or any invitation from any other student for that matter. Most of her classmates had already given up on him, labeling him as a loner... a strange boy. But Nanoha knew that that wasn't the case._

_For if someone asked him for help then the boy would suddenly change gears. Whenever there was someone who needed help, the boy was suddenly reaching out to everyone. He didn't just help people in his own class either. He soon could be found walking all over the school. If a teacher needed help with a task then Shirou would be the first to volunteer. If a kid had broken a toy, Shirou would take it to someone that could fix it. No matter how simple or demeaning, Emiya Shirou would help out._

_But the more Nanoha watched Shirou help others, the more it started to bother her. Whenever Shirou was helping people, he would smile and encourage the other person. He would make sure that they were happy, but he never stayed around to share in that happiness. He would hand over a fixed toy or stand up to a bully and then leave without even taking in the thanks of the person he had helped._

_It annoyed Nanoha for reasons that she couldn't really understand. But soon she found that it was his eyes that troubled her. The strange emptiness that would haunt them whenever he was alone._ _Those eyes would be filled with emotion when he was helping people or when he was trying to do something, but after the deed was done, he would fade back into that empty looking boy that she had seen the day he transferred into class. It bothered her, that someone that was doing their best to make everyone else happy wasn't happy themselves._

_It was wrong. Nanoha was sure of that. Someone who was kind enough to help others shouldn't look so sad when the deed was done. Someone who helped others should smile along with the person he helped._

_With that revelation in mind, Takamachi Nanoha acted._

* * *

_Emiya Shirou still remembered the day the brown haired girl dragged him onto the rooftop of the school._

_You don't forget something like that._

_One moment he was convincing his senior that she could just hand him the flyers she was supposed to deliver. The next moment, his classmate was dragging him away somewhere. In his defense he did try to struggle a bit but..._

_Nanoha had been rather determined to talk with him._

"_So... Takamachi-san. Did you need me for something?" _

_It seemed that his first guess had been a wrong one. The girl scowled at him, placing her hands on her hips as she glared at him. Shirou swallowed as he took a step backwards. The boy couldn't think of anything he could have done to deserve that look but apparently he had offended the girl somehow._

"_I'm sorry?" He said hesitantly. _

_"You're sorry? Why are you sorry? You didn't do anything!" The girl threw her arms up in the air. "Why are you always like this?"_

_Her sudden outburst caused him to take yet another step back. Shirou was horribly confused by everything. Why was she angry at him? In fact, had they even spoken before this? He did not like the expression that was on her face. He backpedaled when she took a step towards him, but stumbled over his own feet and fell. Shirou gulped as the girl loomed over him and flinched when she pointed at him._

_"Listen carefully, because this is very important..."_

_Shirou nodded rapidly._

_"From now on." The girl spoke slowly and clearly, each word pronunciation to convey the importance of her message."You... will be my friend."_

_Shirou blinked._

_"You're going to be my friend," Nanoha continued, "and I'm going to be yours. You're always working so hard to make everyone happy, but you never stay around, never wait for anyone to give their thanks. If you want others to be happy then you must first be happy yourself!"_

_Shirou just stared at the girl in front of him. He really didn't understand what the girl was talking about. After all, wasn't helping people in itself enough reason to do so?_

_"I-"_

_"No!" The girl instantly shut him up. "You don't get to argue. I've seen you whenever you think no one is around. You always make such a sad face. When you're alone you aren't happy at all! So, I'm going to make sure that you are happy, even if nobody is watching you!"_

_Shirou nodded rapidly in the face of that unrelenting gaze, if only to stop the girl from becoming even angrier. He didn't understand the girl's reasoning so trying to argue with her wouldn't make any difference. The girl took his silence as his consent, and as a smile grew on her face, he realised that he would never get her to leave him alone._

_Once more he saw a smile so bright that he couldn't help but wonder what it would take to be that happy._

* * *

That afternoon Shirou and Nanoha found themselves eating lunch alone. For some reason neither Alisa and Suzuka had come to their usual spot, leaving the two of them alone to enjoy their homemade meals. By now Nanoha was looking somewhat better as the girl enthusiastically dug into the lunch her mother had prepared. Shirou eyed the lunch box with a slight hint of envy before looking down at his own. Compared to what Nanoha was having, his own lunchbox was definitely less than perfect, a fact that he begrudgingly accepted as he dug into his own meal.

"Another loss for me." the boy muttered between bites. "She's still far ahead of me."

"Hmm? Is something wrong with your meal Shirou?"

"Nothing. It's nothing."

"Hmm? Oh well." Nanoha shrugged as she continued to eat. Neither of them spoke as both children finished their meals but as Nanoha started to pack away her mealbox Shirou decided that he couldn't wait any longer.

"You've been thinking about that girl, haven't you? Thats why you're so distracted during classes." Shirou struck right at the heart of the matter.

"Eh? Shirou already caught on to that?" Nanoha laughed nervously. "I didn't know I was that easy to read."

"You're not the only one that's worried you know." Shirou pointed out. "Besides, I know firsthand how you get whenever you decide to help someone. You really get stubborn when that happens. Back then I didn't even have a chance to say no to you..."

"I wasn't that bad..."

"You were. I was so terrified that I couldn't even move!"

"I'm not that scary!"

"You suddenly declared yourself my friend before you dragged me over to Midori-ya to introduce me to your family." The boy pointed out. "Do you know how embarrassing it was to call my dad to pick me up because I'd abducted by a classmate?"

"It wasn't that bad!"

"And then your mom found out that dad was about to leave the country again and suddenly I was eating dinner at a strange house before being told that I was going to stay there for the next three weeks."

"... It wasn't that bad, right?" Nanoha tried to reason. "It's fun staying at our place right?"

Shirou scratched his cheek in embarrassment. In the end he did like spending time with the Takamachi family, even if he was only a burden. "Even so," he added, "If you approach this girl the same way as you did me you will probably scare her away. After all, unlike me she'll just fly away even if you corner her on the roof. You'll probably have to shoot that girl down before you can get her to listen."

"...Shirou, beating up people isn't going to make them our friend."

"Didn't it work on Alisa?"

Even as Nanoha unleashed a devastating cheek-pinch attack on both sides of his face the smile he sported didn't waver.

Nanoha was finally back to normal.

* * *

"_We've just finished checking our block."_ Shirou reported as the ferret on top of his head stood guard, watching the streets while Shirou reported to his father. _"Nanoha just signalled that she also finished her sweep so she's also heading to the next block."_

"_That's good,"_ Kiritsugu replied through the link Yuuno had set up. _"I'm nearby your location. After you and Yuuno finish the next block we'll meet up in front of the shopping mall before heading home. It's getting late and I don't want you three to be out for much longer."_

"_I'll have Yuuno pass down the message to Nanoha. We'll be off then."_

"_Call me if you see anything."_

Shirou readjusted the bag he was carrying on his back while looking up at the night sky with a frown. The four of them had been combing the city for a few hours now, with Kiritsugu searching for possible hiding spots where Fate could be camping while the rest sought out the Jewel Seeds.

"So, where were we?" Shirou spoke as he felt Yuuno move from the top of his head to his shoulder.

"I think we were going over the differences in Projection. Remember the last time I had you project objects from different sizes? I wanted to see if there was a link between the size of the object and the time it remains in the world."

"Ah," Shirou nodded. "But the swords I make always seem to last longer, so it might not have anything to do with size, aside from the power needed to recreate it in the first place."

"I noticed that as well. I wonder if it has something to do with..." Shirou looked to his side as he felt Yuuno stiffen on his shoulder. Before he could even ask what was wrong, the familiar feeling of magical energy washed over his senses. An alien sky illuminated the shadowy world, lightning cutting through the air as magical energy flooded the area.

"A Barrier?" Yuuno spoke up in surprise. "Don't tell me that girl is trying a forced activation spell inside the city?! This is dangerous! Shirou! I'll set up a barrier and call Nanoha. You scout ahead and see if you can find the Jewel Seed!"

"Right, what about the old man?"

"_Yuuno already contacted me," _Kiritsugu's voice suddenly popped up in Shirou's mind, the voice surprisingly calm as his father swiftly followed with instructions. _"Nanoha has already approached the girl called Fate but her familiar seems to be missing. Yuuno will go and track her down while you go and locate the jewel seed. I'll join you once you find it. Stay out of sight until we can secure the seed."_

"_But that leaves Yuuno alone against that woman!"_

"_I'll support him for now. Now move, we are wasting time."_

Shirou moved, even as doubt and confusion fueled his thoughts. What could his father do against a magical familiar?

* * *

Kiritsugu cursed as he ran down the street, the Calico clutched in his hands while the sky above him was illuminated by the clashes between the pink and yellow blasts. Most likely both Nanoha and the girl called Fate had pinpointed the location of the Jewel Seed by now and were locked in battle until either one was defeated or their partner could secure it.

Most likely the familiar would try to acquire the Jewel Seed in the confusion...

"What's this? Another one? Where do you people keep coming from?"

… or she could be running right into him.

As Kiritsugu looked up he found the red wolf looking down on him, perched on one of the streetlights. "I must have rather crappy luck to keep running into mages on a backwater planet like this. Anyway, you should probably leave the barrier if you don't want to get hurt," The beast growled. "but from that scary look on your face it seems that isn't going to happen."

Kiritsugu didn't answer, his lack of response seemly entertaining the beast.

"Well then, don't blame me if you get hurt..."

The next moment Kiritsugu found himself rolling over the ground as he barely dodged the beastly familiar's claws. Using the time he had won he created some distance between the two of them. The beast's eyes narrowed in what appeared to be anger before it sped after him, only to crash into a green barrier.

Kiritsugu looked over the head of the howling beast and found Yuuno running towards them. Following his gaze the familiar soon noticed the boy as well, turning around to face the source of her current headache...

...leaving her wide open as Kiritsugu pulled his Calico from his coat.

"Let's see just how ineffective bullets are against those barriers." The man mumbled as he pulled the trigger.

* * *

Nanoha dodged another round of lightning as she and the blond girl continued their duel in the sky. While she knew that her friends and Shirou's father were moving below her there was no way she could take her eyes off her current fight.

Fate was strong. Even after all the training Nanoha had pushed herself through the girl was still keeping her on the defense.

The blond flashed forward for another strike. Not prepared for a frontal assault, Nanoha barely managed to put up a barrier, but could not stop herself from being shot backward from the power of Fate's sudden attack. Crawling out of the rubble Nanoha's breath froze as she spotted Kiritsugu lying on the ground as the familiar named Arf turned towards Yuuno. Relief filled her body as the old man suddenly moved, clearly showing that he wasn't just done yet.

"You should pay more attention to your own fight."

Fate's warning caused Nanoha's head to snap up, desperately looking for the next attack. But by the time she found her opponent the girl was already on the move. Nanoha, could only watch as Fate raised Bardiche and directly shot towards her.

Both girls froze, the latter in mid flight, as a rapid series of dry explosions echoed through the empty city. Both looked at the other, neither girl recognising the sound before both turned to face the ground.

"..thats."

"Arf!"

Nanoha followed the gaze of her opponent towards the beastly familiar, currently enveloped in countless orange flashes as dozens of object slammed against her barrier. The beast cried out in surprise. The kinetic force behind the rain of metal made the wolf stumble, causing her to lose her balance as she smacked against the ground, the barrier protecting her continued to flicker under the onslaught.

Nanoha stared at Kiritsugu, the man crawling up from the ground as he continued to point the contraption in his hand towards the beast. Nanoha wasn't so ignorant that she didn't recognise a gun when she saw it. Even so, her mind refused to connect the image of the kind old Kiritsugu wielding such a weapon.

Shirou's old man was a kind person, even if somewhat scary at some times. So why was that man shooting a weapon meant to kill without any hesitation?

But as both Nanoha and Fate froze in indecisiveness, the familiar acted. Arf let out another cry as she shifted back to her human form before slamming her hands against the ground. In response a series of barriers appeared between her and her assailant, shielding her from the gunfire.

"You lunatic! Using mass weaponry? You really are a brute from a backwater planet!" the woman cried out as the gunfire ceased in response. "But I can shield myself from that annoying ammunition just fine! You won't even get through this barrier with something as small as that! Try armor piercing bullets next time!"

"I'll keep that in mind, but for now this works just fine. " Kiritsugu answered as he once more raised the weapon, causing the woman to strengthen her barrier once again.

"After all, all we needed to do was to keep you occupied in one spot." Yuuno added as he revealed himself. Arf eye's widened as she finally noticed the spells the boy had prepared while her attention had been focused on the older man.

"Oh sh.."

"Struggle Bindings!"

An intricate web of green chains broke through the barrier, binding the woman to the ground, leaving her unable to as much as lift a finger. "A barrier created to stop kinetic weapons won't be as effective against magic, and vica versa." Yuuno continued as a confident smile grew on his face."The moment you decided to focus on Kiritsugu's weaponry you left yourself open to normal binding spells. It was the same as when you faced Shirou and me last time. You should keep all of your opponents in mind!"

"Like I..."

Whatever Arf was going to say was cut off as the ground trembled violently once more.

* * *

Nanoha's eyes widened, the girl's skin crawled as she_ felt _the Jewel Seed, which now was producing far more energy than it had been when she first detected it. She had to get to it and seal it before...

"_Nanoha!" _Shirou's voice echoed through her mind. "_I found the Jewel Seed, but it's going haywire! I'm feeling strange just by standing near it. We have to seal this one, quickly!"_

"_I'll be right there! I just have to get past Fate before..."_

But as Nanoha looked up she found no trace of Fate.

* * *

Shirou clenched his teeth as a familiar yellow bolt raced towards him, the signature magic style of Fate Testarossa. Behind the yellow blur was a familiar pink flash, meaning that Nanoha was already in pursuit. Stepping around the glowing artefact he positioned himself between the girl and her goal.

"Trace on!"

Once more the familiar shinai appeared in his hand, although the first sword was soon joined by a second one. Shirou did not cut any corners this time. He made sure that the copies were nearly indistinguishable from the original. Most likely there would be no time to recreate a third sword like in his fight against Arf. Fate's attack would take him out in a single blow if he couldn't block her first strike and Yuuno wasn't there to support him.

Then again, he only needed to last until Nanoha caught up.

He waited until Fate was only seconds away, the girl having raised her scythe as she prepared to meet him head on the moment she had noticed the sword in his hand. As she drew closer he focused on her forehead, slowing his breathing as he removed all useless thoughts from his head until it seemed that time was crawling to a stop. Shirou let out his breath as power flooded his body, his fingers tingling as he raised both arms, ready to meet his opponent...

... before throwing the first sword like a javelin towards the girl.

Shirou had expected the girl to dodge the impromptu projectile, diving towards the ground and leaving her inside his range of attack. Instead the boy watched with dull surprise as the sword struck the barrier protecting her face. Fate blinked, equally surprised. The sword, aided by the resulting difference in momentum and it's nature to defy reality, proved to be just enough to pierce its way through the shield.

A dull thud echoed through the battlefield as Fate came to a sudden halt. The girl cradled her head while a moan of pain escaped from her lips. Moments later she once more assumed an aggressive stance while glaring at him. Shirou noted with some satisfaction that the girl was displaying both anger and embarrassment, a great improvement over her usual empty look.

"Shirou!"

Nanoha's cry caused the blond to narrow her eyes before she disappeared in a blur of yellow sparks. Shirou was nearly ran over as both Fate and Nanoha rushed past him towards the Jewel Seed. Both Raising Heart and Bardiche clashed against the Jewel Seed as the air screeched, the pressure and energy of the impact with energy causing the devices to tremble. But suddenly the Jewel Seed responded, both Nanoha and Fate letting out a cry of surprise before another blast of energy propelled the two girls away from the seed as started to rampage.

By the time Shirou had gotten to his feet, the heat emanating from the lost logia was making the air burn his lungs. He couldn't see Nanoha nor Fate anywhere but he had a clear view of the disaster waiting to happen. Shirou felt his stomach turn as he noticed that a nearby building had already caught fire, the lights of the barrier making the flames look even more ominous...

_...as a black sun rained fire down on the city..._

No...

He had to stop this. If they didn't stop the Jewel Seed then such a disaster would occur again. But he had no sealing magic, no device...

Even so... there were lives at stake.

Shirou stepped forward.

* * *

"Fate? Fate!" The familiar howled inside the cage of binding spells as Kiritsugu kept an eye on the woman, the familiar growing more desperate after she had witnessed her master getting launched back into the sky along with Nanoha.

After confirming that Nanoha had escaped the explosion unscathed, Yuuno had left to find Shirou. His chains kept the familiar in place even in his absence. But, just to be safe, Kiritsugu had returned his Calico to it's holster as he instead held his mystic code in his hand. Even without the use of an origin bullet the power of the Contender would most likely prove far more effective than the Calico.

He had already pushed himself too far. His limbs trembled as the strain of the battle on his weakened physique became more apparent. Just dodging the familiar before had wracked his body after hitting the ground. If the beast escaped the cage Yuuno had created then he'd have a single shot, if he even managed to make that before the familiar overpowered him.

Even so, he had remained silent as Yuuno had sped off. From what the boy had told him before he had gone off, the Jewel Seed was already in it's booting stage, the artefact slowly activating as it started to dump raw magical power in it's environment while it waited for input to guide its actions.

Sealing the Jewel Seed at this stage would take up all of Yuuno's strength if Nanoha was unable to assist him. He couldn't hold him back in with such circumstances.

He would keep guard here, until either the Jewel Seed was sealed by Yuuno or Nanoha or until the familiar would break free again. Hopefully the woman would prioritise reuniting with her master before going on the offensive.

* * *

Yuuno flew with all his might as he tried to withstand another shockwave the Jewel Seed had unleashed. Each pulse was disrupting his flight spell and it was taking all of his concentration to keep from crashing into the ground. It was taking far too long to get to the epicenter; precious seconds wasted in restoring his flight path as the Jewel Seed continued to extend it's power. If he didn't hurry then nobody would be able to seal it.

Suddenly the pressure faded.

Yuuno wasted no time, using the lull to speed towards the Jewel Seed but as he finally came in sight of the disastrous lost logia, a horrible feeling of nausea erupted from his stomach.

Shirou was there, kneeling on the ground as his hands enveloped the lost logia. The boy was vigorously repeating the same sentence, tears streaming down his face as Yuuno realised that his hands were being burned away, a few parts already starting to blacken from the heat.

"...stop it... stop it...stop it...stop it...stop it...stop it..."

"Shirou?" Yuuno whispered as he approached the boy slowly.

Suddenly the boy stopped, looking up at Yuuno with empty eyes as the Jewel Seed grew brighter and brighter until the light shrouded Shirou from Yuuno's sight.

"... I can't stop it..." Shirou whimpered, barely loud enough for Yuuno to hear...

...and then he screamed as a storm of fire and light exploded from where Shirou had been.

* * *

At the center of the storm stood a single boy.

The power seeping through his fingers filled Shirou to capacity in less than an instant, ravaging his body as it ripped through trembling arms. Blood trickled from his mouth, having bit his tongue while unable to stop his body from shaking. Every single muscle in his body had gone haywire, leaving his limbs out of his control. The hands trying to enclose the Jewel Seed felt like they were full of holes, fingers bent in ways they were never meant to.

The flesh burned, before turning into steel as he willed his hands back into position.

He had to stop it, he had to stop it before the city burned. He had to stop it before _that_ happened all over again.

A cage of flesh and blades surrounded the Jewel Seed. His body was burning, the power flooding it enough to kill any human instantly by burning them to a crisp.

Still, he lived.

The power of the Jewel Seed sought the path of least resistance. Within Emiya Shirou twenty seven channels desperately tried to dump that overwhelming power somewhere, anywhere in order to survive. With just a single surge the circuits burst at their foundations. Miraculously the circuits held, even as power beyond their limits was forced through them.

Emiya Shirou's true nature was that of a collection of circuits, a conduit specialised for but a single purpose. It was horribly underdeveloped, but the fundamentals had already been laid down on that fateful night two years ago.

The body follows the nature of the soul. The soul follows the impulse given to it from the very beginning, no matter how inhuman it is.

For a single moment Emiya Shirou realised that he was not human. Because he was not human his flesh did not burn. His body was made out of countless blades. As he spilled his blood the power carried through his veins turned the flesh into steel whenever his skin was torn away. There was neither fear nor surprise, for his heart was devoid of such feelings.

Steel does not burn. Steel does not know fear.

"_My body is made of swords. My blood is of iron, my heart that of glass."_

But even that wasn't enough to save him as the pressure of the jewel seed continued to increase. At that moment, with his mind tethered at the edge of consciousness, Shirou realized...

_...there is something inside of him that he cannot see, something beyond the limit of his vision._

It was darkness, not a wall that stopped the magical energy until now. An empty void existed beyond the shadows, a hole that he could not fill on his own. But it could be filled, it must be filled for his body to survive. The power of the Jewel Seed that desperately wished to 'fulfill' found itself a purpose in the circuit that exists to 'create'.

The limit beyond the darkness was destroyed, pushed aside as if it never existed. The Jewel Seed slipped through the cage of fingers and steel as it was drawn into the conduit that facilitated a miracle. Burning circuits turned into liquid metal as Emiya Shirou's mind succumbed, unable to handle the strain.

Even so, he lived.

Everything broke before being reforged.

The flames spread, and the city burned away.

* * *

When Nanoha finally managed to open her eyes, her arms trembled. The staff in her hands suddenly felt as heavy as lead.

"What… what is this?"

There was no sign of the purple sky, nor of the strange twilight zone that accompanied the barrier. Instead she watched as large swaths of the city disappeared only to be replaced with a wasteland. The buildings that remained were devastated, fire's burning down everything as one after another collapsed. The sky was filled with smoke, ashes from the flames obscuring everything from sight. The ground was scorched clean of any signs of life and Nanoha could see fire dancing around at random all over the streets.

Flying through the rubble, seeking her friends, Nanoha couldn't stop her tears at the sight of the ruined city. Again she had failed. She had promised to protect her hometown but without the barrier...

Suddenly she noticed something moving inside the rubble. Recognizing Yuuno's blond mop between the rubble she sped towards the ground...

"Nanoha!"

As Yuuno's warning reached her, she dodged to the side, barely avoiding the silver blur that rained down from the sky. As it fell down to the flames below Nanoha gave it a second look.

It was a sword. It was far from complete, jagged and half forged, but the weapon had been intended to be a sword. It was odd, but she realized that she recognised the blade. Although deformed it resembled the nodachi her brother carried around.

"Get close to the ground." Yuuno continued. "It seems that whatever is causing this is targeting everything that tries to get close with whatever you just got shot with."

"Yuuno-kun. What… what is this?" Nanoha asked as she landed next to Yuuno, her vision blurry from the tears in her eyes. "Why did the barrier fail? Why is the city…?"

"We are still inside the Barrier. This isn't really Uminari City." Yuuno replied. That statement caused the girl to freeze. Relief filled her body as she let out the breath she was holding the entire time.

"Shirou grabbed the Jewel Seed." Yuuno continued, setting Nanoha on edge once more. "I'm not completely sure what happened after that, but this twisted world is still inside the barrier. Even now my original spell is still consuming mana, although the drain is larger than before. I think that the Jewel Seed has created another barrier inside mine and that it's pushing against mine in an attempt to punch through. Even so, this strange world is incomplete and full of holes. That's why parts of the city are still appearing inside this world."

"... but then, what happened to Shirou?"

"I haven't found him yet." Yuuno confessed. "But seeing that this world is actively shooting those swords at us when we try to get closer to the center. Shirou's powers might be controlled by the Jewel seed, which means it's using him to keep us away from it. "

"Then we find the Jewel Seed first. Shirou should be nearby" Nanoha nodded. "But, if it's using Shirou to make those blades then why did it make this strange world as well?"

"I don't know." Yuuno answered solemnly as he gazed around the strange world all round them. "Right now we need to find Shirou first."

Nanoha couldn't agree more with the boy as they left their shelter. They made their way through the wasteland, dodging the steel and wooden swords aimed at their heads as they went.

* * *

"URAAAA!"

With a final push Arf ripped the chains off her limbs, the spells had weakened ever since this strange world had appeared. Immediately she jumped backwards, creating some distance between herself and the dangerous man standing in front of her, but...

The man hadn't moved. Even though she had, rather loudly, escaped from her prison, he was not paying any attention to her. Instead he simply stared, bloodshot eyes gazing into the burning city as his whole body trembled. The hand holding onto his weapon had turned completely white from the grip he was exercising. A small trickle of blood ran down his hand and on to the barrel of the gun.

By the looks of it Arf could probably walk up to him and wave her hand in his face. Her ears twitched as she noticed that the man was mumbling to himself, desperately clutching the back of his right hand with his free hand.

"... impossible, this is impossible. That fire..." he muttered in a low tone, repeating the phrase to himself as the city burned around him.

Arf knew that if she wanted she could take him down right now, if only to pay him back for the humiliation from before. Mana gathered around her hand, transforming the deadly claws into a blade that could cut through steel with ease.

It would be so easy...

Arf tsked and dashed away, ignoring the man. The power gathered in her hand quickly dissipated.

Finding her master was far more important than petty grudges, or so she told herself.

* * *

"[Target located. Distance 60 meters ahead]"

Nanoha frowned as she tried to see through the smoke and dust surrounding this part of the city. The occasional attack by flying swords had stopped ever since she and Yuuno had entered the center of the barrier but they had been forced to continue on foot.

Nanoha squinted before letting out a gasp. Without warning she rushed forward, leaving Yuuno behind to cry out in surprise as the girl made her way towards the humanoid shape moving in the smoke.

"W-what is this..."

Nanoha raised Raising Heart in front of her as she recognised Fate's voice, it hadn't been Shirou that she had spotted through the smoke. As Nanoha entered the eye of the storm, devoid of both dust and smoke, she immediately spotted the familiar yellow scythe on the ground, Fate's arms limp at her sides as the golden haired girl sported a look of complete horror on her face.

Following the girl's gaze Nanoha suddenly felt her knees buckle as bile forced it's way up to her throat. It was too much for the girl to stomach. Seeing the city on fire had been bad, but this... this was just too cruel...

"Oh god, Shirou..."

Nanoha barely noticed Yuuno's arrival, instead forcing back the vile taste in her mouth before she willed herself to look up again, to watch that horrible spectacle. Shirou had collapsed onto the ground. There were holes in his shirt from where the fire had burned through and she could see red-tinted skin beneath, and even a few spots where the skin had turned black altogether. The boy's red hair was covered in ashes, painting white streaks down his head, mingling with the blood seeping from small cuts all over his body.

Because she hadn't been there Shirou had...

"Thank god! He's still breathing! His burns look bad but..."

Nanoha looked up as Yuuno suddenly paused, the boy was looking down on their friend with a confused look as he stared at the wounds.

"...what's happening here? Is the Jewel Seed repairing the damage?"

Nanoha forced herself to look at Shirou again, before realising what had stumped Yuuno. Shirou's burns, although still hideous, had already started to fade. The flesh was shifting, burnt parts returning back to normal healthy skin even as other parts tore open again. It seemed the power of the Jewel Seed was both ravaging and repairing Shirou's body all at once. But there was something else. Nanoha noticed that parts of his skin had been replaced with strange scales, gleaming in the twilight...

"Are those... knives?"

"Nanoha," Yuuno suddenly spoke up. "Whatever is trying to repair his body... it's not going to last. If we don't seal the Jewel Seed and separate it from Shirou it's going to continue to destroy him from the inside."

"B-but, its inside Shirou! Can we even do that?"

"[Sealing mode. Serial number XIX]" The baritone voice of Bardiche suddenly spoke up, revealing that Fate had pointed her device towards the boy.

"You, what do you think you are doing?" Nanoha cried out as power gathered in front of Bardiche's tip, aimed directly towards Shirou.

"... Saving him." Fate answered before lightning struck Shirou's body once more.

* * *

Nanoha winced, the girl forced to close her eyes before the blinding light would leave her without her vision. The world around them reverted back to its natural state, the sky roaring as the twisted world the noise died down Nanoha slowly opened her eyes.

The city had completely disappeared.

The air was dry and hot, the dirt underneath her feet shifting as a soft breeze made its way through the barren wasteland. The sky was clear, tinted red as she spotted the sun resting just above the horizon.

"A bounded field? But why..."

Kiritsugu's voice shook Nanoha out of her stupor. When had the old man appeared right next to her? Suddenly the girl noticed that they weren't alone. Just a few meters ahead stood an equally confused Yuuno and just ahead two more figures suddenly appeared. Arf had somehow returned to Fate's side without anyone spotting her, as if she had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It seemed both familiar and master had no idea on how they had been reunited, both looking at each other in utter confusion.

"Shirou? Where's Shirou?"

Nanoha panicked as she looked around, desperately seeking the missing boy until she finally spotted her friend. He was lying face down on one of the hilltops surrounded by half a dozen blades, amongst them several swords which Nanoha recognised from those her family possessed and the shinai which Shirou had recreated countless times.

She wanted to ask. She wanted to know what this world was, what Shirou had to do with it and why this sight, even though beautiful, was filling her with such feelings of sadness. But before she could open her mouth the plains faded away leaving the six of them standing in the city once more. Uminari had returned to normal, or rather, it had returned to the barrier that Yuuno had set up. The town was empty but unscathed. There was no sign of the fire or destruction from the Jewel Seed.

Nanoha let out a breath of relief before looking up. Next to her, Shirou was lying on the ground unconscious but breathing. The burns had completely disappeared, along with the strange knives pushing out of his skin.

"Thank god." Nanoha smiled, relief flooding her body as she stared at the boy's sleeping face.

"Arf."

"Got it!"

"[Scythe Form!]"

Nanoha froze, the skin of her neck tingling as the blazing yellow blade nuzzled against her barrier jacket. Arf had Yuuno pinned down and was watching the both of them. Nanoha slowly turned her head around, careful as not to cut herself onto the blade, only to find the girl looking down at the boy.

"...The Jewel Seed."

Nanoha blinked, before she realised that she hadn't seen the lost logia appear after Fate had sealed it.

"Didn't you seal it?"

"I did, but it didn't detach itself." The girl replied, her eyes closed as the girl seems to be weighing her options.

"That's rather unsettling." Kiritsugu's voice suddenly interrupted, accompanied by a soft metal click as Fate suddenly found herself facing the metal barrel of the gun in his hand. "Now, please step away from the boy and leave your weapon next to him on the ground if you want to get out of this unharmed."

"You want to get pounded into the ground old man!" Arf yelled before Kiritsugu _glared_, the sheer intent of his chilling gaze stopping the familiar in her tracks by instinct alone. Arf gritted her teeth as she realised that her hands had begun to tremble. This man wasn't a fighter like herself or any of the other mages. This man was a predator, a killer.

She had clearly underestimated him.

"Your familiar said to me that I should have brought armor piercing bullets. With that in mind I'd like to warn you that this weapon has much more penetrating power than the one I used on her. You might manage to stop the bullet before it burrows through you but I doubt that at this range you'll survive the force behind it."

"Why..." Nanoha croaked, unable to believe what the man in front of her was saying. "something like that..."

If Kiritsugu heard Nanoha's cry then he didn't show it, cold eyes glaring at the confused blond who had taken a step back in confusion. It seemed that Fate didn't really know if Kiritsugu was telling the truth but that Kiritsugu's cold tone of voice alone was enough to make her hesitate.

"That's a gun Kiritsugu-san!" Nanoha cried out. " Why... You can't just point it at her like that! Such a thing..."

"Right now this is the only option I have to protect both you and Shirou, as well as this city. Either this girl surrenders and hands over the jewel seeds or I'll end this situation right now..."

"Stop her? But that's a gun! Guns... guns kill people! That's not something you can just do, you can't kill people!"

"That's enough for now Nanoha." Kiritsugu snapped, cutting the girl off. "Please, take the device from that girl and help Yuuno get up."

"...surrender the Jewel Seeds? Like we'd let you do that!" Arf snarled, slamming into Yuuno's side before jumping in between Fate and the gun. Nanoha could only watch as Kiritsugu narrowed his eyes as his finger moved...

"...Old man?... What's going on?"

He almost didn't hear it. Shirou's faint voice, almost a whisper, made Kiritsugu freeze, his trigger finger pausing just for a instant.

The next moment a gunshot echoed through the empty city as the bullet punched through the concrete.

The blond and her familiar had vanished before the weapon had been fired, saved by a single moment of hesitation.

"You shot..." Nanoha whimpered as she shook her head, the girl unable to believe what she had seen.

"I missed..." Kiritsugu spoke, his voice faint as he spoke in surprise, blankly staring at the gun until it fell out of his trembling hands. Moments later he followed the gun towards the ground as he collapsed right where he stood.

"Kiritsugu! Nanoha, please check on him. I'll look at... where's Shirou?!" Yuuno looked up, finding no trace of his friend. " Don't tell me... they took him with them!?"

"Kiritsugu-san?" Nanoha shook the unconscious man. "Please wake up! You always knew what to do. What should we do!? Please!"

As the two children panicked, they slowly started to realise the truth. What had happened was nothing less than total defeat.

The Jewel seed was gone, and Shirou along with it


	5. Chapter 5

**V : Is this fate?**

"_Hey,hey!'" Arf cried out as the boy convulsed under her steel grip. "This is bad Fate! It's getting worse! Why is the seal failing already?" she snarled._

"_The sealing system wasn't meant to be used while the lost logia was still active…" Fate murmured, the blond caught off-guard by the sudden relapse of the boy. "I'll have to replace the sealing spell before it deteriorates. If this continues the Jewel Seed will activate once more."_

_Arf grimaced at the news."If that thing goes on a rampage again we'll be unable to hide our home from those other brats and that psycho killer. We'll have to extract it from his body before that happens..."_

"_That's not an option." Fate shook her head. "It didn't detach itself from the boy after the first time. It must be locked in place for some reason. Even if we try to pull it out now it might activate before we can completely separate it… and he has suffered enough."_

"_Fate, I understand that you don't want to do any more harm… but we can't let things stay like this!" Arf pleaded. "Just get that thing out of him and seal it amongst the others already! Once we get the Jewel Seed, we can just drop the boy on the roof of a hospital. He'll be taken care off and out of our hands. It's too big a risk to keep him here!"_

_But Fate simply hefted her Bardiche once more, the black device brimming with power before it once more subjected the Jewel Seed into obedience. _

* * *

_The man dreamed of the past. Flames surrounded him as piles of ash, once human bodies, scattered along the cursed wind blowing through the ruined streets..._

_**Death by suffocation. Death by mutilation. Death by exsanguination...**_

_He paid no attention to the curses echoing inside his head or to the blisters on his hands. He continued to dig out one corpse after another. He had to keep looking, for someone must have survived this disaster..._

_**...Death by dismemberment. Death by pulverisation. Death by flaying...**_

_But here the memories of the past diverged from the nightmare he was reliving. For where there should have been a boy with red hair and golden eyes amongst the rubble, near death but still drawing air, nothing remained. And as the man dug more desperately, between running from the ruins of one house to another, he slowly realised that the boy he saved, the boy that saved him, was nowhere to be found._

_Shirou wasn't there. He had lost the only person who he had been able to save._

_Even after sacrificing everything he held dear... Kiritsugu had truly been unable to save anyone. _

* * *

Kiritsugu woke up, the sight of the burning city replaced with the white plastered ceiling of what appeared to be a guest room. Looking down he found that his coat had been removed, folded neatly next to the pillow his head had been resting on.

"You're awake."

Only now did Kiritsugu notice Takamachi Shirou sitting against the wall.

"Where… no, when was I brought here?"

"Nanoha and Yuuno managed to carry you back to our home yesterday. It's already getting dark so you've been out for almost an entire day."

"I see. Then, after I was brought here…" Kiritsugu paused as he recalled the first part of Takamachi Shirou's answer. "You know about Yuuno?"

"We know everything now Kiritsugu." The man replied, letting the smile slip from his expression as his gaze turned cold. "I had Nanoha tell me everything. Everything Kiritsugu, from her first encounter with the mage to Yesterday's disaster. Right now those two are under my wife's attention but…"

"Shirou. You didn't mention my son…."

Takamachi Shirou had many reasons to be furious with Emiya Kiritsugu. The man had failed to keep up to his word, not only hiding the fact that the town was in such grave danger but also the fact that he had shown Nanoha a glimpse of the grim world both the assassin and the bodyguard had stepped out from. He wanted her life be normal, common and away from danger. And even though Kiritsugu wasn't really responsible for it he was a symbol of that world Takamachi Shirou wanted to shield his little girl from…

But even those feelings didn't make it easier to tell this man the truth. For Takamachi Shirou knew how much the younger Shirou meant to his father.

"...Miyuki and Kyouya are still looking, but we haven't found a trace so far. We still have hope that we'll find him of course but...…"

"I see. He's gone…"

Takamachi Shirou had never imagined that Kiritsugu could look so broken.

* * *

Emiya Shirou's world had become one filled with pain, headaches and nausea.

He had woken up in what appeared to be a luxurious, if somewhat under furnished apartment. His body complained with every breath he took and even the slightest movement caused pain to burn through his nerves…

But that pain was all too familiar to Shirou. After all, it was the pain he had felt back when he tried to turn his own body into a circuit. With that sudden realisation he realised that, even now, his circuits were still burning hot.

Which should have been impossible. His Od, his own life's energy, was dangerously low. Kiritsugu had clearly stated that if he kept his circuits running for a longer period like that he'd definitely die, seeing that Shirou was unable to use the mana of the environment. Even so it seemed that his circuits were blazing at full strength, heating up his body as he continued to channel power; power that definitely wasn't coming from himself.

Even though any amateur magus should be dead at this point, Shirou wasn't. Somehow that didn't make the boy feel any better.

Shirou willed his breath into a calm, regular pattern as he desperately fought the nausea in an attempt to clear his mind. Slowly he conjured the image of the gun's hammer, before slowly willing the representation of his switch back to normal. For a moment he felt the burden of his circuits diminish, his body relaxing as the stress placed on his body finally was lifted…

...moments later the boy screamed out in pain as circuits were instantly pushed open without any mercy, leaving him spasming on the ground. caught off guard Shirou found himself gasping for air, his breath reduced to short ragged wheezes while tears sprung from the corners of his eyes.

For a moment he had sensed the _strangeness_ which was now embedded deep inside of him; an overflowing cup of heat that leaked power right into his circuits. The overflow forced his circuits open in an attempt to disperse the power leaking into his body as they converted the raw power into prana. Normally Shirou only managed to keep his circuits open for a short period of time, either until his body was out of Od or when he no longer could withstand the strain it placed on him. Together with Yuuno he had discovered that, even under training conditions, his limit was around twenty projections at most, or about an hour of sitting still while his circuits simply burned through his Od.

He had never left them running for longer than an hour, and certainly not while unconscious. His father had warned him about what happened to magic users who lost control of their circuits. Some of them had burned themselves out, killing themselves as their lifeforce was wasted away, or would find themselves incapable of controlling their magic at all, turning into a danger for everyone near the unfortunate magus…

…Shirou, having crawled back on his knees, carefully placed a hand on the bed he had been resting on, desperately emptying his mind as he softly uttered his trigger in an attempt to analyse the structure of the bed.

"...oh boy." Shirou whimpered as he slowly, _very slowly_, moved away from the bed, crawling over the floor as he started looking for a way out. Shirou still remembered what had happened to an object which had been flooded with prana beyond it's limits, his mouth painfully dry as he recalled the sight of a steel pipe crumbling into dust.

Eventually he made his way through the room towards one of the outer walls. Sweat dripped from his brow as he climbed to his feet, before moving alongside the wall as he made his way towards a door.

He needed to get out of the room to make his escape. Fate and her familiar seemed to be missing for now, making this a rare chance for him to find out where he had ended up, and how to escape. A smile finally appeared on his face as his hand, trembling uncontrollably as his limbs clearly struggled under the strain of moving with burning muscles, managed to get a grip on the door handle.

His short found confidence took a hit as the handle refused to move.

"It's locked?"

This was going to be a bit harder, especially with his legs barely holding him up. Shirou bit his lip in frustration and in an attempt to clear his mind, desperately trying to think of a way to get past the door.

If Fate had taken the effort to lock this door it meant that a way out of here existed beyond it. Once he got through he would have a better chance at escaping. Shirou refused to give up here, all because of a simple lock! For a moment he toyed with the idea of trying to analyse the lock with his magic and then make a false key, but Shirou doubted that he had the control to do something like that. Even more, with his circuits out of whack all he'd do was probably overloading the lock...

… destroying it in the process.

"Analysis... start."

Even as his body heated up uncomfortably, far worse than normally, he couldn't help but smile as the steel handle slowly began to turn into rubble...

... until the whole door suddenly exploded in his face.

* * *

Walking next to her master in her inconspicuous humanoid form, Arf couldn't help but glance at her owner as Fate carried a selection of cakes, recently appropriated from a local bakery. The girl had wanted to bring a gift for her mother, especially since she'd be bothering her with her request.

"I don't know Fate," Arf spoke as they walked down the street, accompanying her master as the latter carried a selection of cakes. "Can't we just... try again ourselves? I know it didn't work but bringing him with us to see her..."

"We only managed to find four Jewel Seeds, five if we count the one still stuck inside of Shirou." Fate replied, carefully cradling the gift she had selected for her mother. "Mother is a much greater mage them I am. She'll find a way to extract it so we can send him back."

"But she'll be angry!" Arf protested, looking rather uncomfortable as Fate mentioned her mother. "We'd be taking a stranger with us, directly ignoring her instructions on how to prevent anyone tracking us back at any cost! I...I just don't want you to get into any trouble."

"It's okay Arf." Fate smiled, gently squeezing the hand of her loyal friend as they walked through the entrance of the apartment building. "Mother is strict because she wants to be careful, mostly because I keep making mistakes. She'll understand that Shirou isn't any threat to us. In the worst case, the boy will have to stay in the Garden for a little while to make sure that he's okay."

"That woman will probably lock him up in one of the basements." Arf muttered as she followed her master into the elevator and closed the door as Fate pressed the button for the top floor. As soon as the doors of the elevator opened Fate made her way towards her room, Arf absentmindedly following her master, which explained her surprise as she suddenly bumped into the smaller form of the girl.

"Arf..." Fate calmly spoke as she stared at the end of the hallway. "Do you remember setting up a trap on the door of our apartment?"

"...No" The taller woman slowly replied. "Then again, it might be a good idea though with our little guest. Any reason..."

Arf speech faltered, finally noticing the distinct lack of door at the entrance of their apartment. The former heavy wooden divider separating their apartment from the corridor had been replaced by a collection of rubble which surrounded the unconscious form of the redheaded boy.

"Oh..." Arf dryly noted. "That's why."

* * *

"He's still packing quite a fever" Arf noted as she placed the boy on the couch. The boy continued to twitch in her arms as if her very touch was enough to bring him discomfort. "He smells like ammonia…"

Arf paused as she noticed the boy's eyes open slightly, the boy casting a half-lidded look through the room.

"Are you awake?" Fate addressed the boy, grasping his head with her hands as he threatened to fall over. "Can you hear me?"

"Ah..." The boy seemingly found the clarity to speak, his eyes widening in recognition. "It's Fate... right?"

"That's right. Do you know where you are? Can you remember what happened?"

"I... I was walking towards... a door." the boy answered, his face scrunched in confusion as he looked at the door frame even as Fate held his head in a firm grip. "Wasn't there supposed to be a door over there?"

"There was." Arf snapped. "Now tell us what you tried to do which ended up blowing up our door!"

"Arf, please calm down." Fate shook her head. "He's probably too confused to…"

"Ah, I just wanted to get outside... I wanted to open the door." The boy sheepishly confessed, drawing Fate's attention back to the feverish boy. "The whole... exploding thing wasn't what I had in mind."

"Alright." Arf shook her head in disbelief. "Let's just tie him up next time we leave the apartment..."

"There's no need for that." Fate shook her head as she made up her mind. "We will all be leaving for the garden tonight."

"W-Wait just a minute." The familiar took a step back, reacting as if struck. "That's too fast! We haven't even asked her… and he's much more dangerous than we thought! Look at him, he blew up a door because he wanted to open a lock!"

"All that is the fault of the Jewel Seed sealed inside of him." Fate rebuffed her familiar's objections. "I doubt that I can keep on resealing the Jewel Seed inside of him for much longer. It's doing far too much harm to him already."

"But-"

"I'll take responsibility for bringing him with us." Fate decided, removing her hands from Shirou's head leaving the boy to slump to his side due to the sudden lack of support. "She'll be able to understand."

"Agh! I get it!" Arf moaned as she slouched over towards the bed. "We'll take him. I'll carry him with me. Just... give me a few minutes of rest before I have to drag him all over the place..."

"...aaah!"

Fate turned around, finding the boy looking at Arf, sporting an expression of sheer panic as his eyes widened to their limits and his skin turned even paler than before. Spinning back towards her familiar Fate could only watch Arf as she threw herself towards the bed, crashing down right on top of the comfortable mattress…

...thus compressing the prana-bloated object with the additional force of her momentum, pushing it past it's critical point.

"[Barrier Set!]"

The sudden warning from her device was all that Fate Testarossa picked up before her bed suddenly imploded on itself, the soft blankets and mattress exploding under the surprised familiar.

"Arf... are you alright?" Fate called out after the dust had started to settle, revealing a very angry woman sitting on the ruins of the bed, gashes all over her body.

"... That's it, we're leaving right now." Arf replied as she slowly pulled herself out of the remains of the bed, wincing painfully with every move she made. "Your mother can handle him from now on, I don't care anymore. I'm done."

"...Sorry." the boy mumbled, trying to look apologetic but failing to focus on the woman who was glaring at him.

"Lets... lets go then." Fate spoke up, gently pulling the boy off the couch before Arf slung him over her shoulder, following her master out of the apartment.

* * *

Every single fiber of Kiritsugu's body voiced their displeasure as he once more went through his routine exercises, forcing his body to endure even as the strain of his previous encounter still limited his motions. The man no longer wished to waste time resting. The fast pace of the last few encounters reminded him that any attempt to find and rescue Shirou would become more difficult with every second the girl named Fate could decide to simply extract the Jewel Seed currently sealed within the boy by force.

The tidbits of information he had collected from Nanoha and Yuuno's recollection of the last encounter, along with what he had seen himself, had brought him to the unsettling conclusion that the artifact had done more then just hide inside Shirou's body. It had used him to create a bounded field, a feat of thaumaturgy meant to separate an area from the rest of the world. Due to the alien nature of the Jewel Seed the inside world had been twisted beyond recognition but...

...the sight of the burning city had been all too familiar to Kiritsugu, enough for him to falter as the countless curses voicing their hatred of him were suddenly bolstered by that nightmarish sight.

Aside from him, there had been one other who had seen that nightmarish visage two years ago. Most likely the Jewel Seed had used Shirou's traumatic experience to create a world where it could hide from the people hunting it, arming itself with the basic thaumaturgy the boy possessed at the same time.

It made sense… except for one glaring inconsistency in his theory.

The bounded world should have disappeared almost instantly when the Jewel Seed had been sealed. Instead just the chaotic elements, the fire and the buildings, had been the only ones to vanish, leaving an empty wasteland behind. Without the Jewel Seed to form and shape that world there could only be one other explanation for that unnatural landscape. Whatever the Jewel Seed had done in the short time it had inhabited Shirou's body, it had unlocked a power that no regular human was supposed to possess. It was a power that could easily cost him his life, either by his own actions or by those who would hunt him for that ability.

Even worse, the Jewel Seed had somehow done something just as impossible, if Shirou's regeneration was caused by the same object that had saved his life after the fire.

Avalon, the Ever Distant Utopia. It was supposed to be worthless now, it's power spent the moment the last traces of Saber's prana had been used to restore Shirou's health after the fire. Even so, once more Shirou had been revived from the brink of destruction, his body continuously repairing the damage that the Jewel Seed was causing.

Avalon couldn't... should not function properly for anyone but Saber. Anyone contracted to her would benefit somewhat, but was far from inmortal. Those without a contract would only have their injuries healed if the artifact was still charged with her power, which required her to be present with the artifact using all of it's reserves in the span of but a few minutes. Even Shirou hadn't been fully restored the first time he had cheated death, requiring weeks of hospitalisation to finish his path of recovery. Saber was gone from this world, yet the holy scabbard was clearly active once more.

Just what was it that was buried deep inside the Jewel Seeds if one could awaken that ancient phantasm once more?

* * *

Takamachi Momoko knew that her daughter was strong. Her little girl was not one to quit, instead gritting her teeth and weathering on. Nanoha never asked for anything, never wanting to be a burden or to be in someone's way. She was mature for her age.

… she had been forced to grow up too fast. By the time her father had returned from the hospital and the Takamachi family finally realised how much they had neglected their youngest member Takamachi Nanoha had become a mature little girl, obedient and far too manageable for a child her age.

Perhaps that was the reason why she and the younger Shirou hit off so well. The boy was the same, possessing discipline no child should possess, a drive and determination that clearly showed the scars inflicted on his personality. Boys of his age normally want to practice the sword because it was cool, or because their parents told them to do so. Emiya Shirou wielded the sword to fulfill a goal chased with a determination few living humans could match. Meanwhile Nanoha was clearly struggling with finding a purpose of her own.

But it seemed that Nanoha had found her purpose. Unfortunately said purpose had turned out to be a much greater burden to bear for the girl now sulking at the kitchen table.

Momoko wasn't a warrior of great skill nor was she a mage of great wisdom But she knew at least one thing she could do for her daughter.

"Here Nanoha, caramel milk."

A somewhat hesitant, but genuine smile appeared on Nanoha's face as she eyed the beverage in front of her. Using both her hands the girl brought the beverage to her lips, carefully taking a sip before letting out a sigh of relaxation.

"It's good."

"Now," Momoko smiled as sat down in front of her daughter, " Perhaps you want to talk about this? I'll listen to whatever you have to say."

* * *

"_...Just four. And you even failed to secure the last one properly, scurrying home with this... failure or yours in tow. This is nothing less than horribly disappointing."_

_The boy couldn't tell if he was still awake, or if he was dreaming. He remembered the feeling of being carried, having been cradled in the arms of the red headed woman… or was it Fate who had swung his arm around her neck as a set of doors opened in front of him…._

"_Yes... I'm sorry mother."_

_For some reason those four words cut through the whole dampening his thoughts. _

"_Listen Fate, You are my daughter. The sole daughter of Precia Testarossa. For you, nothing should be impossible, no matter what..."_

_Just listening into the conversation taking place took all of Shirou's strength, but even that was not enough for his focus to remain intact. As the pain of his body overwhelmed him once more, he felt himself slipping, his mind shutting down..._

"_..that's why, I want you to remember..."_

_The cries of pain that followed were barely registered, Shirou's consciousness faded away once more…_

… _even so, the boy grit his teeth even as his mind drifted into darkness._

* * *

"...oh, you've managed to regain consciousness at this point? Quite a feat for someone in your condition."

Shirou immediately realised that something strange had happened to him while he had been gone. His thoughts were clear, his mind no longer clouded and twisted by pain. Gone was the ever present discomfort inside his chest and his circuits no longer burned through his flesh, relieved of the burden that had been placed on them. But it didn't take long for Shirou to realise that something was horribly wrong with him.

He couldn't feel anything. Below his neck there was no pain, no discomfort… nothing. He could still move his head, making it possible to see the ends of his limbs, hands and feet encased in purple bindings which kept him afloat. His body was right there…

"Don't bother." The woman spoke as she seemingly took notice of his discomfort while looking at the displays in front of her.

"W-what.." Shirou gasped, finding it hard to speak as his lungs struggled with every breath he took. The taste of blood filled his mouth with every gasp he took.

"Don't talk. Most of your lungs have already started to degenerate into a bloody pulp, so spare your breath. Unfortunately for you it seems that your lung tissue was exposed to the highest concentration of the Jewel Seed's output. The rest of your body is in horrible shape as well. I was forced to suppress most of your somatic nervous system just to keep you from thrashing around. It is rather uncomfortable."

The woman paused, one hand hovering in front of her mouth as she forced back a cough as the other hovered in front of the screen, frozen in action. Soon the woman dragged her attention back to reality as she conjured another screen out of nowhere. This time Shirou was able to see what it displayed, although he couldn't make heads or tails from the intricate pattern displayed…

...aside from the bolted XIX displayed in the center.

"Your visual and auditory senses still seem to be somewhat functional," Precia noted absentmindedly, "seeing that you're capable of recognising the Jewel Seed on this display. I had expected to find that mental pollution would have occurred but it seems your body is somewhat resilient against the damage inflicted on your body."

Shirou wanted to ask 'why'. He wanted to know what she was going to do, who she was and what the jewel seed displayed on the screen had to do with all this…

No, he knew what it meant. He had known ever since he had woken up in that apartment with the burning sensation inside his chest, especially after Fate had tried to remove it, only to fail...

What had happened to Fate?

"Until now, no Jewel Seed has been permitted to remain in contact with a living organism for this long a period. By now it seems to have evolved to the point that even a single twitch you make is getting amplified, causing magical damage as your body self-destructs. From what I've seen the first few cases showed that with lesser evolved organisms, the interface is far from precise. This... symbiosis of yours shows that the true abilities of the Jewel Seeds are far beyond just simple power generators. Unfortunately the side effects are rather severe. I'd say that if you had retained your senses your body would feel like it was on fire right now. Not a merciful death at all."

Not even Shirou could hold back the wave of cold fear as the woman so _casually_ mentioned that he...

… he was dying? Just like that?

"It took me a five-layered sealing spell just to isolate the Jewel Seed from most of the impulses your body produces." the woman continued. "Unfortunately for you it seems that even taking a single breath is enough to trigger a small, but dangerous, response at this stage of assimilation. Separating the Jewel Seed without setting it off is indeed something beyond the scope of my technology and abilities..."

Shirou refused to listen, refused to accept her words. Dieing? He couldn't die. He wasn't allowed to die! He…

Something was off about all of this. Why was this woman even talking to him in the first place? She knew that he didn't understand half of what she was saying, that he couldn't even answer her. Even more, it was obvious from her tone and posture that she didn't even care about his health, yet had taken the time to inform him of his… upcoming death. Why was she...

"If you're wondering why I'm even talking to you at this point, "The woman suddenly turned to face him, "I just needed you to listen to my voice in order to finalise the calibration of the last layer of the seal. I can't have the remnants of random thoughts disrupting the containment while I extract the Jewel Seed..."

Suddenly several dozens of chains, similar to those Yuuno had used, burst from the floor as the tightly wrapped themselves around him, digging into Shirou's flesh as another set of binds wrapped around his throat. Unable to breathe the boy faintly struggled against the deadly choke...

"While it was interesting to observe a specimen of this world's unique magic culture, especially your abilities to disrupt spell patterns and your regeneration, I fear that your value as a research subject compared to the artifact you are now holding on is... incomparable. So... farewell, I guess."

Shirou didn't feel any pain as the woman pushed her staff against his chest, the thin purple blade of light that had suddenly formed out of thin air slicing through his flesh like a hot knife through butter.

The last thing he saw, before all went black, was the face of a woman who looked like she had simply pushed a button to shut down an obsolete experiment.

* * *

"Well... someone sure left their signature all over the place."

Standing at the entrance of the apartment, the broken door long since removed by the personnel of the apartment complex, the woman simply observed the traces of magecraft gone awry. When she had set up a few nets around downtown to trace her little trespasser she had not expected little result. Whatever means the trespassers used, they were almost undetectable to her surveillance spells, the bounded fields covering parts of Uminari far too weak to track them.

Fortunately it seemed that little Shirou's actions had undone all of the trespassers precautions. While the physical damage had been repaired even a second rate magus could easily tell that someone had wasted a large amount of prana, the traces in the structure surrounding the doorframe still palpable to her.

Reaching into the pockets of her coat the woman fished up her pack of cigarettes, lighting one as she brought it to her mouth…

"Well then. Time to make a call." She mumbled as she pulled the cigarette from her mouth, using the tip to mark the doorframe with a set of carefully drawn sigils before making her way towards the exit.

For several moments the strokes embedded onto the frame smoldered, before fading into oblivion.

* * *

_He was going to die. No, he was dead already. That woman had told him, without showing any emotion, just dumping the fact on him without even caring if he could even comprehend it._

_There had been no need for her to lie. Even without the hole in his chest his body would have been destroyed from within. Whatever the Jewel Seed had done to him before had left him nearly unable to think, his body poisoned while his magic circuits continued to burn._

_All the woman had done was to give him a small reprieve of that pain and chaos, before finishing him off in a single blow. Even though her intentions were purely selfish, it had saved him from something much more painful..._

_Even so, he didn't want to die._

'_I can't accept this. I can't just die here, without any meaning to my death...'_

_Emiya Shirou couldn't die. Not like this, not such a meaningless death, not after living without paying back the price he had paid before, the sacrifice of all those who burned on that day when he had left them behind._

'_I was saved... I was saved, so I'm not allowed to die this easily'_

_Didn't he promise Yuuno that he'd help him with everything he had? Didn't he tell Nanoha that they were in this together?_

_Didn't he promise Fate that he'd help her, that he'd come to her aid if she asked?_

'_I have to live... I have to fulfill those promises. If I die, I can't do that.'_

_But there's a hole in Shirou's chest. And even without that hole his circuits are breaking down his body. There was no way that he could..._

'_I want to live.'_

_Emiya Shirou's whole existence echoed that single thought, crying out for help on the edge of life and death..._

_...and deep inside of him something answered._

* * *

_Avalon, the sacred scabbard known as 'The Ever Distant Utopia'. A miracle crafted by the fairies of old, spiritual extensions of the world, and bound by completely different laws than those that dwell in the world of men. The artifact that they created is as fickle as the crafers that forged it, recognising but one true master, and only accepting her power. Thus the artifact, now dissolved to the point that it inhabits almost every living cell of the entity known as Emiya Shirou, has remained dormant for over a year, it's powers spent and only influencing the soul of it's current host, molding it into something more in tune with it's own nature._

_Emiya Shirou cannot use Avalon, the boy was unable to call upon the protection of the realm shielded from even the five great magics. Only the human known as Arturia Pendragon can wield the artifact, ensuring that the king of legends does not bleed, nor age, and is protected against even the great magics of the world._

_Jewel Seed XIX is neither a great magic, nor an object from this world. The Jewel Seed is something far older, forged inside the dimensional sea at depths that even those of Al-Hazard would call unreachable, before the whole empire vanished into that oblivion. And as time passed knowledge of the Jewel Seeds disappeared, and the lost logia themselves aged, growing unstable as time took it's toll._

_A rampaging Jewel Seed is neither patient nor sapient. It does not seek a host, nor does it follow a specific programming to fulfill a goal. Had the Jewel Seed fused with Emiya Shirou, even with the magic circuits of the boy, things would never have become this complicated._

_But it hadn't bonded with the organism known as Emiya Shirou. Instead it anchored itself to the countless fragments spread throughout his body, even though those existed outside the physical realm._

_The Jewel Seed bound itself to those fragments of a miracle, and through those it bound itself to Emiya Shirou._

_The artifact had obtained an indestructible frame, made from the scabbard of the last phantasm and the soul that it had reforged, a frame covered by the flesh of Emiya Shirou._

_The Jewel Seed had become the Scabbard, or has the Scabbard become the Jewel Seed? Both answers were wrong, for they were still both there, fae magic and lost science, intertwined at a level beyond the material world. An impossibility which had become possible, a miracle that was never supposed to happen._

_A rampaging Jewel Seed is neither patient nor sentient But Jewel Seed XIX had long since stopped rampaging. Instead it... they responded to the desperate plea of the soul that shared the vessel it inhabited._

'_I want to live.'_

_And thus, as Precia Testarossa callously released the bindings holding what she believed was the corpse of Emiya Shirou, a grating wheeze echoed through the room as air was forced back into his lungs, the hole inside his chest filled with countless razor sharp knives._

_She watched skin grow, slowly moving over the mesh that now filled the hole in his chest, while muscle fibers sprung from the blooded steel. Her eyes widened as she stared at the mesh of blades, slowly turning into flesh before her very eyes. _

_And on the face of Precia Testarossa a dreadful smile grew as she reached out toward the boy._

* * *

"Oh, they even replaced the bed with a bigger one!" Arf noted with a satisfied smirk as she landed on top of the newly replaced furniture. " It's a good thing too. You should get some sleep before we get back to work tomorrow." Arf's smile faded slightly as she watched her master, the blond conjuring her cape as Bardiche appeared in her hands.

"We'll be going on another search tonight." Fate decided. "We lost far too much time already."

"No, you need your rest. Tonight there's not going to be any patrolling. No matter what your Mother says, you need a good night sleep Fate."

"But we.."

"What's wrong with that woman anyway? First she scolds you for bringing him along, then she completely drops the issue. I hope he has been just as much a pain in her side as he's been in mine. Talking about that brat, where did he go?"

"Mother said she'd already finished treating him." Fate noted." I'm sure that she transported him back to the surface after that..."

"Great. Lets just hope that the other two have learned their lesson and stick to that brat's bedside while he recovers. With any luck that will keep them occupied while we finish the job." Arf sighed.

"... that would be nice." Fate agreed

* * *

'_...Great. Lets just hope that the other two have learned their lesson and stick to that brat's bedside while he recovers. With any luck that will keep them occupied while we finish the job...'_

'_... that would be nice.'_

Kiritsugu slowly pulled off his headset, connecting him to the receiver sitting on the side table of the hotelroom. Moments later Takamachi Shirou mimicked his action, the receiver continuing to relay the static of the listening devices even though nobody was paying attention at this point.

The fact that Kiritsugu's 'employer' had found the hotel room had been an unexpected windfall. As soon as he had received the address, Kiritsugu had wasted no time in gaining entrance, bugging the place before the residents would return. The assassin had considered planting a load of C2 as well, but in the end practicality had won out. It would be impossible to evacuate all of the other residents without alerting the girl and her familiar, which would give them enough time to escape should he try to enact such a drastic move. It would also destroy the only source of intel they could access.

"You were right." Takamachi Shirou chewed on his lip. "There is someone giving the girl instructions."

"Her mother." Kiritsugu calmly spoke, before his expression grew even grimmer. "If that woman is deliberately withholding information about Shirou to her field agents... she most likely has something to hide, even from her own daughter…"

"Ah," Shirou nodded. "I… don't like that, at all. But Kiritsugu, that doesn't mean that young Shirou is…"

"Lets not tell anyone else about this for now." The other man cut off the older Takamachi's attempt to reassure Kiritsugu. "It's better for her to think that Fate's still holding Shirou captured."

"That's a lie I'm not comfortable with. If Momoko asks, she won't believe it when I lie to her."

"Then.. lets hope we can capture Fate and get our hands on the true mastermind before she asks..."

"Kiritsugu-"

"I'm sorry Shirou. Looks like I won't be able to save everyone this time..." Kiritsugu shook his head before walking out of the door, leaving the other male behind in the room.

Takamachi Shirou couldn't help but wonder if it had been him, or the younger boy, to whom Emiya had been apologising.

* * *

"It's a giant monster tree." Kyouya muttered as he and his sister unsheathed their weapons after following Nanoha into the park. Within moments the lake and the surrounding grounds were bathed in the otherworldly glow of Yuuno's barrier. Standing behind them was the youngest member of the Takamachi family, Nanoha's device aimed at the monster as she unleashed a barrage of attacks…

"It's got a barrier of it's own?" The girl cried out as her attack was brushed aside. "No fair!"

"Well then!" Kyouya replied. "Lets see how that barrier holds against…"

But before either he or Miyuki could even attempt to strike it the treant moved, it's arms raised towards the sky as a rain of lightning spears struck against the shield of the beast

It didn't take long for the Takamachi siblings to find the source of the magical attack, Fate Testarossa hovering above the battlefield as her familiar guarded the low grounds. For a brief moment both magical girls stared the other down before coming to a mutual conclusion.

"Kyouya! Miyuki! Cut the roots!" Nanoha yelled as she once more pointed her weapon towards the beast. At the same time Fate once more reached out, as magical energy gathered in front of her.

Both Kyouya and Miyuki simply vanished, before reappearing on the other side of the giant, leaving a trail of sliced roots and clipped branches in their wake. The core of the beast, suddenly cut loose from it's base

"Pierce it, lightning!"

"[Thunder smasher.]"

"Divine…"

"[Buster]"

As the two attacks struck the beast, leaving it unable to counter both, it let out a final wail as it was reduced into ash, leaving Jewel Seed number VII behind as the artifact hovered in the air.

"[Sealing form, set up]" Bardiche broke the silence as it shifted forms, preparing to claim the Jewel Seed for his master.

"[Incoming fire]" Before Fate could even get the chance to collect the Jewel Seed Bardiche conjured up a barrier, barely shielding her from the surprise attack launched by Nanoha.

Fate's eyes widened in surprise as she turned her attention back towards Nanoha. From the corner of her eyes she suddenly noticed that the other two humans had also sprung into action, facing her familiar with their weapons drawn.

Fate was so caught up in the sudden stream of events that she only noticed that the ferret had made his way over to the Jewel Seed after he had finished enveloping the artifact in a series of barrier spells.

"...I wanted to talk to you at first…" Nanoha spoke, her voice almost too soft to hear. "I wanted to tell you that I'm not a spoiled girl, that I want to understand why you are doing this. But… right now, even more then having you listen to me, there is something I really want…"

"What are you talking about?" Fate raised her device once, unnerved by the look on her opponents face. Until now the girl had worn either a smile or a look of surprise, aside from the few glimpses of fear she had shown when cornered.

The look the girl was sporting right now was downright chilling.

" I'm going to defeat you here, and take Shirou back." The girl stated her ultimatum. "If you're not going to hand him over… I'll have to take him back by force."

"Take him back?" Fate repeated the statement as she tried to make sense of things. The girl, Takamachi Nanoha was convinced that she was holding her friend captive. But hadn't mother said that she'd finished with him already? Then why?

"Why are you saying that? I don't understand!"

"If you're going to be like that," Nanoha cried out as she leveled her staff towards her opponent, "then here I come!" Without any further warning the girl launched herself towards the blonde at full speed. Pure reflexes forced Fate to twist around, bringing Bardiche to bear in a desperate attempt to block the…

"Stop!"

Before either girl could even land a hit the battle was over, both weapons were seized mid-flight.

"Combat here is far too dangerous." The boy holding both mages in lock continued. "I'm an enforcer of the Time-Space Administration bureau, Chrono Harlaown. Cease your actions immediately!"

* * *

Kiritsugu slowly lowered his rifle as he took the current events into account, having used the scope to keep track of the Takamachi siblings from the edge of the boundary. The view from his scope, accompanied by Yuuno's telepathic relay of the conversation held, had given him a live feed on all the happenings, from the battle against the treant to the appearance of the third mage.

The moment the boy had spoken the name of the organization, which Yuuno had first mentioned after he had just returned to town, Kiritsugu reluctantly returned the safety on his weapon.

He didn't want to make a bad impression on the newcomers just yet. Not before seeing just how _lawful_ this Bureau really was, and how much of an asset they could turn out to be. Furthermore, with the sudden appearance of the TSAB the woman Fate had called her mother, possibly the mastermind behind the entire incident, would be forced to make a move...

"Well then, miss Testarossa," he murmured. "How will you react to this?"

AN: Backlog finished, back to writing!


End file.
